Today I am sitting at my computer writing to my friends who check our web site. Last week we rented a beach house for a couple of days, and my first question was: does it have a wireless connection so I can check and send email if I take my laptop? It did not, but no problem We relaxed by walking on the beach, reading and talking.

Low tech stuff. Actually, NO tech stuff. Many of us are so caught up in iPods, laptops, and cells that we forget that there are other ways to communicate and have fun.

When I finish and click “send,” I am going to resume working on a quilt square where I will select the fabric, cut out the pattern, sew it together on my old sewing machine and perhaps, quilt by hand. Talk about low tech!

I know if I want to spend a lot of money, I could obtain a machine that would cut quilt pieces for me. I think I would have to sew them together, but a machine would also quilt it for me. All I would need to do is program the machine with what I wanted and let it sew for me. BUT there is something satisfying and relaxing about doing it by myself.

I could email an order for dinner too, but I prefer to prepare it myself too. I remember women sitting on the porch in the afternoon stringing and snapping beans for supper that night. They would have already mixed and kneaded the bread and “set it to rising” as they prepared the other dinner offerings from “scratch.” It took time, but there was also time to visit with a neighbor, listen to a child, or just think or enjoy birds singing in the nearby trees.

No, I haven’t noticed square eyes in those young people using video games or sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time, but I have noticed a loss of hearing in young people who crank up the car radio so I can hear it rocking inside my house when the car passes. Hey, kids. Pull out those earbuds, grab an acoustic guitar and sing with your friends. Get away from the computer and read a book where you have to imagine what the words are telling you and turn a paper page!

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy and use today’s technology too. I don’t think about today’s microprocessors having a theoretical maximum of 10.8 billion instructions per second, I am just delighted it’s available. It’s great that I can call my two children who both live on two other continents on my computer with a downloaded program and a microphone from Walmart. I can also email them asking for a recent picture of my grandchildren which I can upload from home to a nearby drugstore and pick up prints an hour later on the way to visit a friend. It’s mind-boggling, but not the ultimate answer to the abundant life.

These are some random thoughts about my day. I hope you are having a good day.
Happy fall, y’all!