I used to take my youngest to social classes at our local autism resource group. It always amazed me to watch the other moms avoiding eye contact and burying themselves in their phones. Once upon a time the moms would have chatted together, arranged play dates and learned from shared experiences. I did find one woman there willing to socialize and chat. She was the grandmother and a lovely lady.
Sounds like something I might say on a bad day. I am not a big fan of cell phones.
I resisted getting a cell phone until just a couple of years ago. My (non-local) bank required my deposits via their phone app instead of scanning them in on my computer and submitting them which I had done for many years.
In all honesty, using the phone app is easier, and, as it turns out, it is cheaper for me and Dear Wife each to have a cell phone than what we paid for the old landline phone that had no other advantages.
But I hate seeing all these young people going to a party, sitting on a couch, and texting to others instead of engaging real live people at the gathering.
And I don't enjoy going out to eat at a restaurant where some people spend more time on their phone sharing their conversation with me and everyone else in the room because they have to shout into their phone, instead of paying attention to their date, spouse, or whoever else they have at their table.
Maybe that's why I enjoy making pallet projects with my own hands. Even if it is not a perfect project, I know I did it myself and can take some pride in my work. Well, that, and most of my working life I had desk jobs moving paper with nothing else to show for my labor. There is some therapeutic value in working with your hands and creating something of lasting value. Even if it is just a hobby project.
Well, the weather has turned on me once again with snow flurries the past couple of days. Not much snow, but cold and blowing with temps in the 20F's. And since I am complaining, I have to mention that I got a flat tire on the front of my lawn mower that I was using to tow my cart with my pallet wood workstation around the yard working on projects.
Well, I have been replacing most of my pneumatic tires with flat-free tires when the pneumatic tires fail. I am so done trying to keep my pneumatic tires in service and paying money every year or two to "fix" them. I don't get tire punctures, like from a nail or screw, on my stuff. But what happens is that the freezing cold in the winter breaks the bead of the tires on the rims and causes them to go flat.
To leave off on a positive note, I decided to build some more 2X4 foot raised beds to put alongside my chicken run fencing to grow those pole beans I was talking about a few days ago. I got a few pallets broken down today, got all the wood cut for the project, and put together the major framing this afternoon. Should be able to finish the first 2X4 raised bed off tomorrow.
