The Visible Woman...November 26, 2003

Even my dad, though, is adjusting to the family coordinating its logistics with cell phones.

Dad and I have agreed to be up at 8 and we are pulling out of the parking lot of the hotel to head to my aunt's apartment when my cell rings.

"Where are you?" asks my aunt. She won't touch a computer (although she wants others to scan and print pictures) but she likes the convenience of the cell phone.

Turns out she has gotten her pie making to a point where she can go to breakfast with us. She doesn't want to miss anything.

Later in the day, we are looking for my other aunt at her retirement apartment and we don't see the car because it's not parked where it usually is and we are futilely dialing her cell phone and getting no answer. The battery had fallen out or something. She doesn't have a land line.

My dad and his sisters went to Allen to visit their older brother and I stayed behind. I wandered Greenville Avenue and had a beer and wondered why they were taking so I called my other aunt's cell phone. Miraculuosly she had it on because she was calling her husband and telling him to meet us at my cousin's because they ran into traffic. My other cousin called to tell me to be sure to take her mother to her brother's because she was going straight there in her mother's car after feeding her dad in the nursing home.

Later, one of my cousin's kids calls when she sees the lights of Dallas on her way home from college.

Before this starts to sound like the Robert Earl Keen song FFP always plays this time of year, my point is simply that we gather as a family with our cell phones to coordinate. Indeed, we use e-mail to organize (although some of the old folks are 'secondary' in the e-mail chain) and we turn to my cousin's computer to pry old pictures off my computer, to print out pictures and to look up genealogy information to resolve a small family dispute. Holidays are definitely wired these days.

Greenville Avenue shop window	not your father's family gathering Even my dad, though, is adjusting to the family coordinating its logistics with cell phones. Dad and I have agreed to be up at 8 and we are pulling out of the parking lot of the hotel to head to my aunt's apartment when my cell rings. "Where are you?" asks my aunt. She won't touch a computer (although she wants others to scan and print pictures) but she likes the convenience of the cell phone. Turns out she has gotten her pie making to a point where she can go to breakfast with us. She doesn't want to miss anything. Later in the day, we are looking for my other aunt at her retirement apartment and we don't see the car because it's not parked where it usually is and we are futilely dialing her cell phone and getting no answer. The battery had fallen out or something. She doesn't have a land line. My dad and his sisters went to Allen to visit their older brother and I stayed behind. I wandered Greenville Avenue and had a beer and wondered why they were taking so I called my other aunt's cell phone. Miraculuosly she had it on because she was calling her husband and telling him to meet us at my cousin's because they ran into traffic. My other cousin called to tell me to be sure to take her mother to her brother's because she was going straight there in her mother's car after feeding her dad in the nursing home. Later, one of my cousin's kids calls when she sees the lights of Dallas on her way home from college. Before this starts to sound like the Robert Earl Keen song FFP always plays this time of year, my point is simply that we gather as a family with our cell phones to coordinate. Indeed, we use e-mail to organize (although some of the old folks are 'secondary' in the e-mail chain) and we turn to my cousin's computer to pry old pictures off my computer, to print out pictures and to look up genealogy information to resolve a small family dispute. Holidays are definitely wired these days.
JUST TYPING In the old days. People wandered off. And we wondered. Now we dial. Yep technology has changed holidays. And not just with online shopping.
		Food Diary. breakfast [Senior Meal at IHOP...offered at a special price for 55 and over...sadly they didn't ask for my ID] 1 slice buttered wheat toast two eggs sunnyside up two slices bacon hash browns ketchup and Tabasco *lunch* nothing...snacks instead *snacks* two cinnamon/sugar things made with leftover pie crust one Russian Rock cookie (with nuts and raisins) Shiner Bock on draft [I sometimes forget how good that first sip of beer tastes...I don't drink beer that often.] small amount of Jack Daniels *dinner* guacamole, hot sauce, tamale, 2 tacos wine (1/3 bottle?) Today I - had breakfast and I almost never do but then had junk instead of lunch
		Time flies.... We had breakfast and then I visited with my aunt while she finished up pies for tomorrow and my dad and my uncle ran around doing errands vis-a-vis their new car and such. She showed me her cool craft projects like wine cork bulletin boards and a light house painting with light house wine charms mounted on the frame (for me that one). Finally Dad and my aunt and I went to Greenville Avenue and met up with my other aunt and cousin. I got some herbs and wine at Whole Foods which was miraculously not that crowded. The aunts took off with my dad to go see their (even older) brother in Allen. My cousin and I walked up Greenville and talked. Then she went to visit her dad who is in a nursing home and I walked some more. I walked south on Greenville until it got sort of smarmy. I really liked a big deco and modern 'antique' mall where I was tempted to buy a globe lamp (the silvery metal globe unfurled a lamp), an interesting siphon and some other cool stuff but I'm drowning in stuff. I walk north again and stop for a beer at an outside table at a cafe. The street is loud with rush hour traffic. Finally, I walk back to the apartment and, when my aunts and Dad arrive, we go to my cousin's house. There is Mexican food, a game or two and we head back to the hotel.

		Reading. really nothing much except part of the Dallas paperFranklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham on bike.
		scribbled in journal
		Exercise a little walking
	. .	Felt pretty good. Mood okay, too, I guess.
	It's a Tangled Web we weave...these days of our lives.	One year ago "The book I just finished gets me interested in a couple of writers, one from the eighteenth and another from the nineteenth century. I spend a few minutes checking out books on Amazon and at Powell's (City of Books) but, in the end, just put stuff on my wish list. I don't really expect anyone to buy me the things on it. I just put them there for my own reference." Two years ago "Have you ever been in a meeting where someone was babbling and you just didn't care? Has it sometimes been you?"