Home Security, Old School

Old School.  Oh, how I love old school.

1. Reading a real ink-and-paper book.
2. Feeding a wood fire.
3. Hand knitting a pair of mittens out of leftover balls of yarn.
4. Smelling wood smoke.
5. Washing my truck with a bucket and hose in the driveway.
6. Letting my feet pick out shoes in person, not online.
7. Taking a shower outdoors using a bucket, a pulley, and a crudely-made tripod.
8. Eschewing email and walking to someone’s office to see if they can attend a meeting.
9. Laughing with someone in person.
10. Reheating leftovers the old-fashioned way: on the stove or in the oven.
11. Sending a handwritten letter to an old friend.
12. Walking to the grocery store instead of driving.
13. Sleeping in an old canvas wall tent.
14. Listening to music while hearing the sound of a needle on vinyl.
15. Clacking away on an old Royal typewriter.
16. Cooking on a woodstove.

All very random things come to mind, and I love this stuff.

I am now voluntarily and consciously and happily amped up on digital options — which I do dearly appreciate.  I enjoy the benefits of having a computer with its backspace key, copy/paste options, and font changes.  My iPhone has command of my attention.  I love being able to text my Sweetheart and loved ones to tell them I love them.  And some days, my longing for Old School or Simpler Times feels to be absurdly archaic.  I have to ask myself, “Would I really trade my fabulous front-load washing machine for the old Maytag with the wringer that ate socks and seized up in the winter?  I know the answer.

Changes abound at lightning speed and I manage to keep up with the velocity, even when I am not consciously aware of doing so.  It is a bit a miracle, really.  How we swerve and maneuver through this thing called progress and improvement and convenience.  And Life.  I sometimes feel as if I have been thrown a’kilter with my intense desire to corral the slipperiness of time in order to prioritize, accelerate, delegate, procrastinate, designate, expedite, precipitate.  What’s that old Steve  Miller song?  “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ . . . into the future . . . there’s a solution.”  I am thinking, Do something Old School today.