Alas, poor Morty

Recently, as I was shuttling groceries from truck to kitchen, I noticed that both cats were out on the lawn, crouching and pouncing and, in general, acting like cats. At one point, Smokey had his paw stuck down in a hole-in-the-ground... up to his little cat elbow, and evidently he managed to scare up an underground creature which I'm pretty sure is a mole.

Above, you see Smokey and Morty Mole (he was so cute I had to name him) taking stock of each other. Bandit Cat is just to the left, keeping a sharp eye on Morty while Smokey alternately cuffed him around and then completely ignored him (it's a cat thing).

You want a piece of me???

I'm pretty sure that's what ol' Morty was saying to Smokey at this moment. He was such a feisty little guy I was tempted to interfere and set him free, but didn't because I don't really want a bunch of little Mortys burrowing under my lawn. Eventually, Smokey got tired of the game & took Morty to his going-away party. I didn't witness any more of that exercise... just noticed next morning, the obligatory body parts which had been left where we would be sure to see them and know the kitty boys are earning their keep. Ah, life can be cruel... but then you don't want to mess with Mother Nature.

Addendum to previous blog

I have more to say about this little electronic marvel; I call it "RT"... short for Ruby Tunes... Ruby because of its color & tunes because of what it does. We're learning new things about it most every day. For instance, the first time I was 'loading' music onto it (with Steven's help), it went into a "synchronizing" frenzy & when it finished, had used up one of the four gigs of space it has. That is a bunch in terms of memory! We were puzzled until we noticed that while it was fooling around inside my computer, it had grabbed a bunch of pictures & documents which it can display on its 1.2 x 1.6 inch window. I haven't looked at all of that yet, but did see (and will keep) the photo you see here...my beloved being Mr. Texas a few years back (well, actually 50 years ago). We have loaded music from Patsy Cline to Pavaroti, Elton to Elvis and we're not finished yet! We still have CDs and LP albums (from the 50's) which, with the help of yet another electronic gadget, we will convert to CDs & then transfer to Ruby Tunes. Occasionally when we are listening, a strange song will come out of nowhere (we finally figured out that some 'music' was preloaded on RT). I'm pretty sure it is Heavy Metal since I think it is the sound one would hear immediately after a musician had dropped a heavy metal cannonball on his foot... (no offense, Kim K). So, we have some clean up to do on the files...next project is to find the delete button on little ol' RT so we can truly personalize our music.

Technology runs rampant

Things have certainly changed...the crank phone shown here is the one I grew up with, back on the farm. It actually belonged to my grandparents, who owned the farm before my parents bought it when I was about 8 years old. In those days, the phones were all on a "party" system... eight homes on the same telephone line. Individual 'rings' (two longs, two shorts, one long/one short, etc) determined who the call was intended for... however, that was irrelevant to the neighborhood ladies who listened in on every call... no matter whose 'ring' had rung. My own mom never missed an opportunity to know what was going on in someone else's business... I think that phone was the forerunner of the TV soap opera.

That might very well explain my own aversion to telephones today. As a teenager, knowing that any 'private' call would be shared by at least 4 or 5 neighbors made one hesitant to make or receive calls. To make a call, you had to twirl the little crank on the right hand side of the phone... one lo-o-o-o-ng crank would get you the operator in town & she would then put you in touch with the telephonee of your choice.

The little gadget on the left is, of course, today's cell phone. What a marvel of technology! It affords us the luxury(?) of never again being out of touch with friends and family... or even the telemarketers who can now plague us even when we are not at home! My cell phone is fairly simple... I don't text... in fact I am lucky to hear it in time to answer before it goes to voice mail; then I have to get the manual to figure out how to hear the message.
But, my latest technological goody is a teeny gadget which can hold about 1500 songs (as if I ever even heard of that many songs) and play them to me in my ear, or in the truck, or on the new boombox which can go from room to room or outside on the patio. It's pretty easy to 'load'... I just had to "rip" and "sync" and there were a bunch of our CDs (a marvel in themselves), now residing in that 2 inch x 3 inch piece of technology... it boggles the mind!

Sometimes I wonder what my parents would think... I recall that about 1985, I was telling my Dad about using an ATM (new technology at that time). He heard me out and then said, "I was sort of hoping I would miss the computer age". I'm glad I didn't miss the computer age, although keeping up with it all can sometimes make one weary. I think I have to take a nap now.