Technology Catches Up With The Jetsons

Remember the The Jetsons?  They were the space-age family on Saturday morning who traveled in the family saucer, had a robot for a maid and talked on phones with video and audio capabilities. 

We may not have flying saucers for transportation but we do have cars that park themselves, tell us if there is a door open or if you have a tire low on air.  If you have a GPS to find how to get from point A to point Z, just say your desired destination out loud and a voice gives you detailed directions on how to get there.  It even tells you if you missed a turn or went the wrong way.  I understand it is just a matter of time before we have cars that will actually do the driving for us.  I remember as a child sitting in the back of the family wagon pretending to punch in an address and the car took me to where I wanted to go.  Who would have thunk it would come true some day.  I was a visionary without knowing.

The average family may not have a robot maid like Rosie but many families have a Romba, a little robotic floor sweeper that keeps dirt from accumulating.  I imagine they provide entertainment for the family cat as well. 

Now that we have Skype, you can see and talk to friends and family at the same time.  The first time we skyped with our daughter at college we sat the laptop on the coffee table.  Our dog Angel jumped up, tail wagging when she heard Susan's voice.  Thinking Susan was in the room Angel started looking for her.  She stared at the laptop with a puzzled look on her face.  Then she looked under the table and behind the laptop.  When she couldn't find Susan she went back to her favorite resting spot and resumed her nap.

Cell phones have come a long way in the past four years.  We recently up-graded our phones.  The ones we had were three to four years old and way behind in technology.  My husband and daughter chose smart phones.  I went with what I called a dumb phone, no Internet or fancy features like voice to text messaging.  I'd be happy with a Jitterbug made and designed for seniors.  My phone does have a few perks, I can take pictures and video and it has a touch screen that makes changing settings easier and faster.  My husbands new phone can follow voice commands, turn spoken words into a text message, download movies, music, e-mail, you name it, it can do it.  The sad part is by next week technology will have advanced again leaving us in the dark.

Until next time, remember, the sky's the limit which means there is no limit since the sky goes on through space for infinity. 

Comments Please!!!

Like most writers there is a part of me that knows what I write is passable but deep in a hidden recess of my brain there is still a small nagging voice that asks, "Do people enjoy what I write?

If you read any of my blog entries, let me know what you think,  even if it's a simple, like or I don't get it.  Writer's can only grow stronger by having feedback. You, my audience, are my critique group for Fruit to Nuts.  Please, critique away.  Until next time, help make a child a reader, let them see you reading a book, magazine, blog post or report.

Black Holes

There have been several stories of late involving the new frontier.  A man donned a space suite and ascended to the brink of space in a souped up balloon, then parachuted back to Earth.  The mere thought puts my vertigo into hyper-drive.  I constantly tell my husband, "If you ever want to get rid of me and have it look natural. put me on a roller-coaster.  I'll be dead from a heart attack with-in the first two minutes, maybe less."
My home is an inter-active model of Space.  There is a debris field floating around waiting to smack you in the face and aliens who have taken over the bodies of my cats and dogs so they can observe a "normal" Earth family.  Then, there's the Black Hole.  I can't see it, black holes are invisible but I know it's there.  In the last year I have had two sets of truck keys disappear.  You say, "Don't you mean lost?"  No, vanished, gone, vaporized...  I have torn my house apart by putting things away and recycling countless pounds of paper.  No keys. I emptied the black hole that is my purse, no keys.   I know they should be there, I had to have them in order to drive home.  I have looked under furniture, in pockets on the ground.  No keys. 
Other items have gone missing in the past.  A couple of years ago a can of varnish vanished without a trace.  The aliens must have finished with it because I found it years later in a flower bed.  I had no idea that space aliens had teeth that left dents like a canine.  Wait, I said the aliens had taken over my dogs and cats, so that explains the teeth marks.
I keep waiting for the black hole to spit back my keys.  I had to have a new key made so I would have wheels.  A new key with micro-chip, without an existing key to program from is painfully expensive.  If I didn't need wheels now, I would have waited for a cheaper solution, going on an inter-galactic space hunt.

Until next time, keep your keys close and your eyes telescoped on your cats and dogs, they are out there watching our every move.