Monday miscellaneous stuff
Well, this morning I had promised to post photos of actors who I visualize when writing. Blogger let me upload one photo, then it wouldn't do any more. Grrrrrr. I will try to do it sometime this week -- if Blogger is willing.
BTW -- For those of you who didn't see me running around cyberspace this weekend going "Wooooooooooot!!!", I finished the synopsis for Book 6. Oh joy! Oh rapture! Happy, happy writer! I took the rest of the weekend off and reconnected with friends, family, and humanity in general. It was wonderful.
On Thursday after work, Derek and I are leaving to go to his family's cabin in the NC mountains for the weekend. That means no Internet, no TV, three radio stations, spotty cell phone reception, and a rotary-dial phone in the cabin. In other words, much needed writer bliss. I shall take books, I shall sit on the front porch in a rocking chair, and I shall be seriously relaxed.
Tomorrow I'll either post actor photos or answer a reader question. This morning (thanks to the dogs) I've had way too little sleep, and can barely string together a coherent sentence. So you'll have to excuse me. Don't worry, the dogs are fine, and we love them dearly, but the girls were really obnoxious last night -- they both wanted to sleep with us and it got competitive. Andy, as always, was a perfect gentleman.
Yep, it's Monday. My goal is to stay awake for it.
Lisa
BTW -- For those of you who didn't see me running around cyberspace this weekend going "Wooooooooooot!!!", I finished the synopsis for Book 6. Oh joy! Oh rapture! Happy, happy writer! I took the rest of the weekend off and reconnected with friends, family, and humanity in general. It was wonderful.
On Thursday after work, Derek and I are leaving to go to his family's cabin in the NC mountains for the weekend. That means no Internet, no TV, three radio stations, spotty cell phone reception, and a rotary-dial phone in the cabin. In other words, much needed writer bliss. I shall take books, I shall sit on the front porch in a rocking chair, and I shall be seriously relaxed.
Tomorrow I'll either post actor photos or answer a reader question. This morning (thanks to the dogs) I've had way too little sleep, and can barely string together a coherent sentence. So you'll have to excuse me. Don't worry, the dogs are fine, and we love them dearly, but the girls were really obnoxious last night -- they both wanted to sleep with us and it got competitive. Andy, as always, was a perfect gentleman.
Yep, it's Monday. My goal is to stay awake for it.
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
6:34 AM
15 Comments:
I love rotary dial phones. We have one in my house, strategically situated in the living room, near the front door. I derive much enjoyment when friends and guests who need to make a call attempt to discover how to use one for the first time.
It's so much fun to watch kids try to figure out how to use the "cool new phone."
I love making calls from the cabin just to get to use the phone. ; ) I miss rotary dials.
AHAHA! I was going to leave a comment about how much I love and miss rotary dial phones!
Congrats on finishing the synopsis for book 6!
Thank you for the congrats!!
:) May you have a relaxing weekend this week!
Um, are rotary dial phones the one where you put your finger in the gaps and move it around? I think we had one when I was little ('80's baby here). I vaguely remember it being a gross green (not lime, leaf, but muted and...gross. Yucky green I call it).
Yep, that's the rotary dial. I love the sound they make when you dial them. So retro and cool.
Congrats on finishing the Book 6 synopsis! So hope you enjoy your break, you really do deserve it! What are you planning on reading?
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oh, and on the subject of rotary dial phones - they're awesome, but not so great in the UK when you need to dial 999; they're not exactly quick, lol! I'm sure it would take a while for 911 for the first 9, but our's is much longer. God knows what could have happened in the time it takes to dial one 9, lol.
MQH: Himself (Old..Creeeeak...Old)
Hey! you all! - The rotary dial was a NEW thing when I was younger. We used to pick up the phone to see if any other people were on our party line. If it was clear, then you clicked the receiver for the operator and told her the number. Our number was 5301. It was some time afterward that we got phone prefixes. (We had "Sherwood 1"; which became 741 when modernization came around.) And, of course, Area codes came after that.
There were no such things as answering machines, voice mails, or text messaging. If you were busy, you didn't answer. (The women/girls had a harder time of that.)
Sorry for the "old folks" bit, but there are 2 full generations that are even older than I am!! (70)
The world gets more fun as you get older - but your view of what is
"important" or "essential" doesn't change much.
Enjoy, you all! (Just a small town Mid-Western kid at heart.)
MQH Himself:
My wife just reminded me that you listened for your own ring on the party line. Her's was 2 shorts and a long. Of course everybody on the party line heard the same rings - so it was possible to quietly pick up the phone on anybody's ring and find out ALL of the news and gossip of the day.
You learned early to be careful what you said out loud (even if you were in the background)- whether you were in a group of people or on the phone.
MQH, I love it!! I'm not quite old enough to remember party lines (just turned 46). Derek's grandmother will be 99 years old next month -- and she's still sharp as a tack. It's amazing to think of what all she has seen.
Congrats on finishing the synopsis. Does this mean you have a short break before having to start on the revisions? {SMILE}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
I'm young enough not to know what a party line is. Could someone explain?
MQH, Himself
Yunaleska:
Explanation of telephone party line: (and then some...)
When a call came into the central switching station a human operator answered and asked to whom you wanted to speak. Then she physically plugged in the connection so the call came to your line.
However, your line also went to 2,3,or 4 other households (parties), so all of the phones would ring together. This is why each of you had your own ring. #1 might be 2 longs, #2 could be 2 shorts, #3 one short one long, etc. It cost more money to run a separate phone line, therefore people who wanted a 2 party line, or a private line, etc had to pay a higher price. Phones and phone calls were expensive and considered something of a luxury.
Some folks were very terse on the phone - they didn't want extra expense.
For some people phones were for emergencies only, not chit-chat. Very much like today's young tell their folks that they need their own cell phone for emergencies, for car break downs etc. After all, how many phone booths do you see anywhere today - or pay phones for that matter. [Clark Kent would have trouble changing today - of course today's street mores might not care if somebody stripped off on the street - I mean what's new to see?]
The fun of history, living long, and figuring Sci-Fi futures is looking at what becomes archaic, and how some seemingly small change in things, makes great differences. After all, cell towers and cell phones were just coming in during the mid 1980's and
the first ones were bag phones (the size of an average purse and a bit heavy).
Sorry 'bout all this Yunaleska; but this is the kind of rambling-on that us "old guys" do when we get a question from the young. We should be more terse, so the young will keep asking us questions, rather then sticking us in a corner. We are so not used to "short", and our minds are very interconnected to so may other thoughts, comments, and (to us) important observations. Long live the young!! May you have that twinkle in your eye when you answer the younger set. Age is neat, even though it takes guts to get old.
ENJOY!
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