Bobbit worm

[WhistlingBadger]

Howdy, Andre. Great to hear from you. Teaching the kiddos to shoot is fun. My daughter is learning on my dad's old .22 single shot. Third generation to learn on that gun, and it's still the most deadly-accurate gun I own.

We're having a great holiday. We have a few very meaningful Christmas traditions in my family, and the ladies were both tickled with the presents I got them, so that's fun. Mrs. Badger and I have two blessed weeks off from teaching. I've been using the time with naps, reading, cross-country skiing with the family, hitting the gym, building arrows, and shooting them when the temperature goes above 20 degrees.

Matt, I got a new flip phone last summer. There's only one model available that I could find, so I'm going to hang on to it as long as I can. I don't want a smart phone--too hard to live in the moment with access to the whole world riding in your pocket all the time. Jan's on to something.


This thread has strayed quite a ways from the bobbit worm. I guess as long as the OP doesn't mind, we're OK.

[BluewaterBoof]

Nothing like a good old land line for reliability and simplicity. As for so-called "texting", that's what e-mail is for.

I never have to charge my jacked in desk phone. It even works during a power outage -- without batteries.

It never drops calls.

I don't need a cell signal to use it.

I pick up the receiver, punch in the number, talk, and hang up. About as simple as it gets.

Pretty satisfying, if you ask me.

No thank you. I did a stint making deliveries years before cell phones and online maps were a thing. I'd have to sit there with a map booklet of the city and plot out my route for the whole day before even leaving the shop, and if you got turned around you were SOL. Nowadays if I have to go somewhere new I can simply say "Hey Siri, I need directions to <insert office here>" and not only will she pull up a real-time visual map of where I am but also read out the directions to me as I make my way to my destination. I have apps that my son's teachers use that keep up up to date on important events and sharing class photos, and the school nurse can reach me for emergencies at any time of the day. If my car breaks down I can pull up the contact information and customer reviews of every single tow company and auto shop in the entire country, should I need them. I can watch a funny video on Youtube with my wife as we lay in bed and wind down from the day, or listen to my own personalized music stations on Pandora with not a single commercial on my way to work.

There are thousands (millions?) of different apps available that can do everything from keep track of your investments/stocks to tracking my reef tank's magnesium levels and lighting schedules. A person could fill up an entire book with all the things a smartphone/device could do that a landline phone can't. Smartphones are literally fully-functional desktop computers that are voice-activated and fit in your pocket.

Smartphones are like any other tool. They can be used and they can be abused. It all depends on how responsible the owner is.

[mermaidwannabe]

If you are somewhere where you can't get a signal, all bets are off. Or if it drops out on you.

Chuckle. I recall when I worked as a part time delivery driver back in the 1980s. I had this book of Thomas Maps, with a printed index that directed me exactly to the correct pages to plan the routes I needed, and since it was pretty up-to-date, there weren't many street changes to throw me off.

Yes, one can do almost anything with a smart phone. I find I can do almost as much by other means, and that's fine for my purposes.

Hubby and I did make one concession along that line -- we got a TracFone for use in emergencies when one of us isn't at home and the other needs to make contact. That's all we use it for, and all we really need it for. Because we live in such a rural area, half the time it doesn't work. A smart phone wouldn't, either. We do okay.

Matter of personal preference, I guess.