A Walk on the Wild Side
AKA Girl Talk: If the weather is nice on a Sunday, I get together with neighborhood girlfriends and go for a walk. Occasionally our conversations get wild, and sometimes the barking dogs we pass seem less than tame. Other than that, our walks are mostly relaxing.
The two friends I walked with this past Sunday have known me for a long time. They know that I am technologically challenged and that just 5 years ago no one would have guessed that I would be on the computer as much as I am these days.
Our conversations spun from our kids in college to our parents dying. Eventually the subject came up. How can I not talk about blogging when the whole idea of our walks is to catch up with each other while at the same time getting some fresh air and exercise?
I told them about the new “featured artist” category on my blog and the friends I have featured that they know. We pondered out loud about the changing mediums of expression and how unlikely it seems that back-to-the-land folks like us would be so immersed in it. I shared with them what my husband said recently about the gaps in my computer skills… “You’re like a gourmet cook that doesn’t know how to use a measuring cup.”
One of my friends had another take on it, one that caused the laughter we were already engaged in to intensify. “Well, I think of the computer as a gourmet restaurant…but I’m just making hot dogs!” she said.
Photo: After walking, we stopped at my house so that my friends could get a snack and some water before heading back to their part of the neighborhood. I pulled out some Christmas photos to show off. “You’ll have to lend us some reading glasses if you want us to be able to see them,” one of them said. That was easy because I’m the nutty professor of extra reading glasses. I pulled out all manner of smudged, bent, and broken frames and lenses and commenced to narrate the stack of photos. After they left, I glanced back at the collection of glasses on the table, a telltale sign that “girlfriends were here” and smiled.
January 10th, 2006 9:35 am
How much fun is that. You have such a great community.
January 10th, 2006 11:03 am
What a great post and great blog. So glad you stopped by to say hello… it’s nice to meet you. I never thought I would end up being such a computer nut either…… change happens:)
January 10th, 2006 12:40 pm
I really adore your friends. I can’t help but talk about blogging either. I mean, I have to admit it is a hobby, and people discuss hobbies.
Love the reading glasses. My table would have crumbs because all I do is feed people 🙂
January 10th, 2006 1:47 pm
Love the gourmet chef analogy! I can relate. Who would have ever guessed that blogging would have caught-on like it has. I think that the invention of blogging…cyber-communities…everyone gets to be a writer…will go down as a major event in history.
January 10th, 2006 2:49 pm
That’s awesome. I can only tell when my girlfriends have been around when there are beer bottles in the garbage can. 🙂
January 10th, 2006 5:25 pm
I see technology challenged bloggers as people who have been invited into a large house or castle and they find the coziest room and promise to tend the fire.
January 10th, 2006 5:32 pm
Great descriptions on the telltale sign of girlfriends in the house and bloggers with no tech-no-logic.
I also see computer use as like being in city I’m not familiar with and getting more lost with every unknown street I go down.
January 10th, 2006 6:12 pm
Good analogy about being a gourmet chef!!! xo
January 10th, 2006 6:38 pm
ow… you made me really miss my friends back home and the clutter of coffee mugs and muffin crumbs and stamping supplies… beautiful post, beautiful blog. May I add you to my ‘vacation spots’?
January 10th, 2006 7:36 pm
Gourmet Chef? Gourmet Restaurant? I think I can identify with you. I can use a computer, a lot of programs and the Internet pretty good, but I’m a desktop guy. Other than turning it on and off, I’m not much good inside it. Good post.
January 10th, 2006 7:50 pm
Its wonderful to have a standing date with your friends. i imagine you guys have some wonderful stories!
January 10th, 2006 8:28 pm
My neighbors get together regularly for coffee and talk or meet for lunch. Sometimes there are 3-4 or us and sometimes 25. It is really nice to be able to keep up with their lives, and of course, I can’t help but mention the blog. Most of them have no idea what a blog is….LOL
January 10th, 2006 11:00 pm
Oh, I like the analogies, but think they should be a little more flattering to such a wonderful chef (although you can’t beat a good chili dog every now and then!). I say that no one would have expected Julia Child to know how her oven worked or how to fix it when it broke. All she needed to know was how to turn it on and set the temp. The magic wasn’t in how the oven worked. If it had been, the repairman would have been on television. The magic was in knowing which ingredients to choose and how to mix them up. So in my analogy, the words are the ingredients and for you the magic is in the ones you choose and how you mix them up. And you don’t need to know how the oven works to do that. I know how the oven works, but would rather know what to put in it!
January 10th, 2006 11:09 pm
What fun! Had to laugh about those reading glasses. You are blessed to have such a good group of friends.
January 11th, 2006 12:03 am
It sounds like such a fun afternoon. Nothing beats spending time with good friends. I like the idea of having extra reading glasses on hand.. almost everyone I know now needs them. 🙂
January 11th, 2006 2:16 pm
“Hey Col,” I said to my little sister (oops – guess my mind is always on blogging too).
But anyway…like you, I’m “technologically challenged” as well. I don’t even know how to get pictures up on my blog and you can do that much. I’m staying hopeful though because Chrissie (my daughter for those who don’t know) said she’d help with that get me going on that.
You might even want to feature ME in your “featured artist section” because I’m going to have some rug pictures put up.
BTW, I’m also going to be teaching a rug class – an unexpected gift from the uninverse, I do think. I’ll be writing about it soon on my blog (of course!!!).
January 11th, 2006 4:53 pm
Kathy’s AKA Ben’s daughter here. The Blog editing is in progress! Finally