Rocky Three-Screens

 

by Pa Rock

Multi-Screener

Rosie and I stepped out of the house at about 6:30 this morning for our daily morning walk.  Actually Rosie was going out to do her business, and, in addition to walking, I was also focused on feeding the cat and the guinea.    Rosie returned to the house about 7:00 a.m. and I stayed out to add some more steps to my daily quest for at least ten thousand.  

(After my two simple "chores," I walk out around the pond to see if anything is new there, look into the various out buildings, and then make several zigzag trips up and down the driveway - with the zigzags serving to increase the number of steps.  A highway patrolman pulled in and chatted with me one morning as I was doing that, and after silently deciding that I wasn't some drunk and that I actually lived at that residence, he went on his way!)

When I returned to the house at 7:23 a.m.  I sat down at the table just inside of the kitchen door and checked all of my screens.  I learned that I had gone from just over five hundred steps when I left the house to just over four thousand by my return.  The day had just begun and already I had completed over 40% of my daily goal.  I also learned that my blood sugar had gone up from 96 at 6:04 a.m. to 107 at 7:23 a.m.  (I'm not sure why that happened - it should have gone down with exercise - but both numbers were good.)  And, I knew that no one had tried to contact me by phone or text during the time that I had been outside.

I knew all of that for three reasons:  I was wearing a pedometer on my wrist to count steps, I have a new portable glucose reader that stays with me - usually in my pocket - and reads my blood glucose levels from a thing that I have stuck in the back of my arm, and I have a lanyard with my phone hanging around my neck.

When my grandfather would go for his morning "walk," he would take along items of a more utilitarian nature - things like a shovel, or hoe, or milk bucket - and rely on his own gumption and energy to stay focused and healthy.  Back in Granddad's day a wristwatch, if you were lucky enough to own one, only told the time of day, there was no such thing as wifi, batteries were generally used only with flashlights or cars, and a telephone - again, if you were lucky enough to own one - was a big instrument hooked to a wire and stayed inside of your home - and it didn't take pictures!

But Rocky Three-Screens can't even go to the car without first checking to see that he is completely connected and on-line.  And when he gets to his car . . . well, that's a whole other set of technology.

I'm not sure that I am smart enough to even be here.  Fortunately I still have a few basic skills that have stuck with me over the years.  I can back out of the driveway without looking at the screen attached to the car's back-up camera, and I live in a rural enough area that I can still find my way home without GPS.

But I know people who can't!