Medical update plus whatever comes into my head.

My brother in law is in a rehab facility. He's improved a bit but he still moves between reality and into some product of his imagination. My poor sister is holding it together but I know this is wearing her down. All my other sister and I can do is offer her as much help and support as we can.

In other matters we have had an unusually warm Fall. At 7:10 on Friday evening it was 71 degrees and in typical New England fashion there's potential for snow at the end of next week. If you don't like the weather, wait a minute.

Locally in Massachusetts they have just passed a law against what is called distracted driving. I suppose that covers a host of things though I have not researched myself. I can only guess eating and drinking are part of it but it's really aimed at phones and the various things you can  do with them. Right off the bat I will say that I don't have high zoot phone. I have an inexpensive, basic phone. I don't need all those apps. In some respects a lot of technology has passed me by and that's ok. I think it's all fantastic though I do find some of it annoying. A friend has a new car and turning on the radio was needlessly busy. The GPS and your phone are all linked to an infotainment center. Press radio, set your station and then it asks you, "Is this the station you have selected?" and you have to press yes. For God sakes! Just get on with it! Remember reaching over and turning the radio on with a knob, which also controlled the volume, and if you had already set the station, you were done!

Getting back to the phones, I wonder what the police feel about this. While it is a good law in theory, it seems to be just one more thing that they will have to be on the lookout for. Then there are the people walking around staring at the little screens. Oblivious to others and sometimes oblivious to traffic. Once again I think the fact they have shrunk your old desktop computer down to something you can carry around in your pocket is amazing but it's also turned some people into phone zombies. I guess I'm just at the stage of life where I am simplifying, not complicating my life. Things are complicated enough. 

I think about all the things that have happened in my lifetime. The Korean War, television, rock and roll, the space race with the Soviets,. The Soviets themselves. I remember Khrushchev saying, "We will bury you!" Watching all the space launches in school. Around here the election of John Kennedy, then the assassination of Kennedy. Then watching live as Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. Two months later the Beatles. The Vietnam War. The killing of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. The riots at the Democratic convention. Woodstock. Watching the U.S. land men on the moon in my living room. The Beatles break up. The Kent State shootings. The gas crunch. Watergate and Nixon resigning. Once again around here, the Blizzard of '78. And this is still the 1970's.

There's so much more to remember right up through to the World Trade Center and the present day state of affairs. I guess in reality it's just me realizing that I'm aging. I really didn't think about it until about a year ago which is about when I stopped working. And now there's my brother in law, who has recovered a bit, but in reality this could play out in several ways.  

Anyhow that was a bit of a ramble. I will try to be back on a more regular basis and I want to thank all of you who always visited here. I do appreciate it.
I'm outta here.