2016 Spring June 17 Friday

81 degrees this morning, walk 35:10 minutes 

Listening to “War and Peace”  (still-I am beginning to think of it as an alternate life of some sort.  62 hours is a long time to listen to a single book for about 36 minutes per day!)  Also,I normally go back a little to startibat place that will make sense.

Anyway, I was thinking of how life has changed, back then, they only heard music etc. “live”, there was no such thing as a recording etc.  Of course that included speeches and everything else  

Being able to listen and watch something again must have a significant impact on human behavior and society  

Since even television (in common usage) is only about 60 yearsolf, the records etc. about 100 years, most human beings who have lived in all of history have never had the opportunity to watch and hear something again and again. 

I think even movies are less than 100 years old.  I can remember buying one of the first transistor radios, and i am sure that recordable cassettes etc. came after that.  

I can imagine what our life would be like if we even didn’t have “time shifting” for TV!  I don’t think we hardly watch anything “live” on tv.  

I wonder if that is why “texting” is so popular, as opposed to actual phone calls or visits?  It is something you can respond to in your own time.  

Of course, what actually happens is people tend to expect you to text (or e-mail) right back, so really I don’t know if you have saved that much.  It is a lot more convenient though.  

I can remember when I first started working, you sent a letter and didn’t expect a response for at least a week.  Or if you received a letter, you knew you had three or four days to respond. 

E-mail kind of sped things up (people normally expected a response the same day or at least the next day, and now with texting, people expect an immediate response!  That a isn’t necessarily true in a work environment, but I think it does hold true with e-mail in a work environment.

Enjoying the patio this morning.  It is still relatively cool, even for 81 degrees. Of course, in several hours the heat will be easy to feel and the coolness will disappear.  

This isn’t a coolness like Spring (or Winter) where it is a nasty, disagreeable coolness, this is a welcome coolness that kind of  brushes your body.

There area actually very few days when it isn’t somewhat cool at night here, maybe a few days in the hottest days of summer. 

There is some kind of bird that apparently only comes out at night (thank goodness) and has the most annoying and shrill squawk I have ever heard.  There seems to be only one and it seems to move around the neighborhood.  Thanks goodness I can’t hear it in the house.

I was going for a walk when I first heard it and it surprised me to say the least. I have never heard anything like it before.

There sounds of the night are more welcome, the wind in the trees, and,within reason, the wind chimes nearby.

Field day today.  It is supposed to be very hot, which is fine with me.  

That’s it for now, Friday, June 17, 2016.