TubaOrNotTuba

Here’s a question that doesn’t require an answer: what did lazy folks do before frozen pizza? I’m not inspired to prepare anything more ambitious. Besides, I haven’t had any pepperoni in ages. Don’t care about the low nutritional value. Don’t care about the ambient temperature here in the house. By the time things get up to the “molten cheese” point, darkness will be upon us, and I’m ready to sit back with some classic radio and a tall glass of apple juice. Rockin’ life, my way.

You know what qualifies as “fun”, on a hot afternoon? Learning that some of your hardware can do new things, not mentioned in the owner’s guide. Today, while seeking something unrelated on a website, I learned that one of the DSLR cameras in the house is able to carry on intelligent communications with the iPad. Think of this as a feature that didn’t make it in to the final edit. And even better, the utility software came at no extra charge. That counts for something, in our economy. My only regret is that MY camera doesn’t have this capability, but to be fair, I probably wouldn’t rely on it for the kind of photography I practice nowadays (very much random, point and shoot stuff.) After all, isn’t it my goal to fix things in post-process, whenever possible?

Another day; another rant. This time around, I want to mention that certain garden hoses are meant to be displayed by the retailer, and nothing else. If it takes longer to dekink and get water to flow from end to end than the actual time I need for water… you get the drift.

It may have required a half century, but some of the skills I picked up in high school now make sense. This afternoon, I decided to sanitize the fresh water tank on the RV, because… well… it seems like the right thing to do. I didn’t get many hours of classroom time in biology, particularly water purification. Hey, that’s why we now have Google; to lower the deaths due to bad drinking water. Anyhow.

With all the enthusiasm spring can muster, I removed a couple of things from my list of things to do before it no longer matters. The RV is now ready to visit somewhere. Yes, the range of possible destinations is limited, but I wanted to get rid of my plumbing antifreeze. Hence, time spent rediscovering the various valves and spitcocks that hide behind things.

Today, I learned that I could build my next dog. To be fair, I like the one I have. However, the idea that I can take a checklist, order some parts online, and end up with a “companion” has some points of interest.

While so much of the stuff we buy seems to last for months before ending up in the broken pile, we need to remember that there was a time when we built things to last. I’ve lived in homes that were older than me, and I’ve driven cars that were not. I have traveled on trains that were older than me, and rode on city buses that were not. There seems to be a point, probably ruled by budgets, that says certain things will be maintained.

As an educator, you learn that “I have no idea” is acceptable only when coupled with “but I’ll find out”. This afternoon, as a result of a photo forwarded to a family member, I had to learn about the why behind our regional fields of tulips. It has nothing to do with the colourful display, nor do we grow the flowers for food. Rather, I’ve learned, the local farms harvest the bulbs, for sale to gardeners here and there (yes, here; my front yard serves as an example). I learned, and I passed the information along to my correspondent, in full magisterial form. It’s what teachers do.

More and more, I am taking the time to see if there is a back-story to the front-story. On CBC, shock that a bank would want a woman to pay $30K for abruptly breaking her mortgage.  Now, one of my kids would love to be a landowner, so I tend to check stories involving the dreaded costs of ownership.

Pay attention, people. That concert you’re watching on YouTube (more than 60K, right now) is live, but it’s not LIVE. Important nuance. I’m referring to the Led Zeppelin concert, Celebration Days. Filmed in 2007. If you think that you’re getting something new and exciting, I hate to burst your balloon.