The David phlox I planted many years ago is in bloom. Just like coneflowers, it self-seeds, so I get to see it spring up here and there in the big garden bed. It’s a tall version of phlox so it has a lot of impact.
Speaking of impact, the crazy weather has had an effect on some of my hanging plants, and has yellowed some leaves on the limelight hydrangea. Here and there on the property, I can see some changes due to the extreme heat we had as well as all the rain. There’s nothing I can do, of course, but observe it.
Yesterday, much to my surprise, the sun came out in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe my eyes! And it’s out again today. We’ll make sure we appreciate it while it’s here because the dreaded ‘chance of thunderstorms’ is back on the docket for the next five days.
I’m over it.
I didn’t get any painting done yesterday. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood. And it was very hot and humid early on, so the a/c had to be turned on and I tend not to paint when it’s blowing air throughout the kitchen.
Don and I were talking about cell phones this morning and I’ve decided that I’m going to start turning mine off for a chunk of time every day. They’re too addictive. I’ve done it in the past, but I always fell back into old patterns. Really – how important do I think I am? Aside from phone calls and face time with my sister and nephew, the rest of it is designed to be addictive; instagram, twitter, games, photos, apps, social media. I managed to get by without any of it for over half my life. I don’t think I got a cell phone until my late forties and in that case, I bought it to be able to communicate with Don on our cross-country move. (We were driving separate vehicles.) When I was teaching I used to say the last thing I wanted was for my students to be able to contact me during my down time. Now, if you’re teaching anywhere, but especially at a university, students can text you and email you all of the time. I can’t imagine anything worse.
The cell phone has ruined much of the experience that is live theater. I’ve written about that before on this blog. It’s appalling. Not only is the experience ruined for the audience, but let me assure you, actors can see the light from the phones when they’re onstage. I remember when our biggest worries were someone coughing a lot or opening up a candy wrapper. Now, it’s the constant buzzing and ringing of cell phones because apparently no one can turn their phone off for two hours.
It used to be that the rehearsal room was an almost sacred space – a space for the actors and the director. No one came into the room who wasn’t part of the creative team. It was a space in which to create, to feel free to take risks without anyone else there. Now, every show has a social media team and those people are constantly invading the space, asking actors for a photo, for a quote, and then, once the show is open, there is the whole ‘takeover’ thing. The Instagram Takeover by so and so – whatever actor has been drafted into doing it for that night. It happens on every show nowadays. It happened on Margaritaville. I finally had to stop following some cast members because they were being sucked into generating social media content that looked exactly like it was – a hyped-up performance backstage. Another actor in the dressing room! Look at this actor backstage! Some of the dancers are warming up! I’m going to ask all the actors a question and share it with you! Aren’t we fun and silly!!
Oh, my heavens. I know I’ve officially become an old fart with this post, but why does everything in the theater have to be hyped on social media? Why can’t the actors and crew and production staff just do their work? It isn’t right. Furthermore, it strips the magic right out of the experience.
If you were in the room with me, you’d have heard a big sigh just now. Some days I long to go back to a simpler time. I certainly long to go back to the kind of theater experience I had for most of my career. It seems almost quaint now.
I have so much more to say but that’s enough for now.
Anyway. My phone will be turned off for a few hours today. I’m going to make myself stick to that.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
We are getting rain now too. Thunderstorms last night and later today. We do need some rain here though.
Cell phones in theaters and concerts is one of my pet peeves too.
Especially people who seem to think it’s ok to video some or even all the performance. The Eagles Don Henley will point and tell people to put their phone away. I’ve seen people video a whole music concert and post it later on you tube. It’s very annoying and distracting to have someone in front of you holding up their phone.
Nothing new with my granddaughter. We are waiting for the neurologist appointment.
Stay safe
I see people doing that as well.
It’s illegal!
Stay safe, Marilyn.
Amen, xoxo! Helga
xo
Stay safe, Helga!
agree very much about cellphones … use in moderation and not at public events, especially where it could distract/irritate performers and anyone nearby. and certainly not when driving a car!
and that does not make you, me or others an “old fart” … it’s about respect, community and common sense.
hope you can paint today for having chores done and more cooperative weather and allergies.
is that plant named for your brother or is that it’s phlox variety name? either way, beautiful. shame about the damage to other plants.
bit of rain fell here last night. i only know that because some streets had puddles in them this morning. been sleeping hard lately, a few hours at a time, then wide awake. would have liked to have been awake to see and hear the rain, but at least we got some more.
hope you are having a good day and stay safe.
kathy in iowa
Reference to ‘old fart’ had more to do with a ‘back in my day’ kind of post.
No the plant is actually named David phlox.
Many thanks Kathy!
Stay safe.
Completely agree about the phones. Social media overload. Most of it to fill space with constant updates whether or not it has any value. Most of it, who cares.
Yep!
Stay safe, Lynda.
I totally get the phone thing.
I’ve resisted and resisted and resisted getting an internet phone. Because I can. I’m retired; I don’t have the ‘workplace’ calling, for instance. I don’t need another leash. I spend enough time as it is at the desk computer although I’ve narrowed things down to just a couple of fave blogs. I very much, pointedly, LIMIT my time on a computer (it wasn’t always like that; I was ‘hooked’ too; there’s some amazing stuff on the web; it’s limitLESS [but I’ve also learned that some of what I read is not accurate, or is too dated, and sometimes it’s difficult to know this]).
My husband never wanted the internet phone, but his workplace required it of him because they couldn’t get hold of him fast enough through email once he no longer wore a beeper. (You know how everything in this life must be instantaneous; immediate. So darn much urgency.) We first got the old-fashioned flip phones to just be able to be in touch with each other when we were working in different cities, each away from home, and also because I had two elderly parents were were trying to helicopter over as well. I loved that if I had car trouble, I no longer had to worry about walking at night on a lonely road to a call box. I could just call for help on my phone and remain safe, locked up in my car.
But then things just got so out of hand with phones. I noticed it the most when I had a caregiver for my mother (a younger one) who couldn’t really complete a conversation with me, eye to eye, without glancing down at her phone. Which meant she also had diluted attentiveness to my mother. So, I felt badly about it, but we had her dismissed/reassigned. My cousin came to visit me in the hospital when I had cancer, and she was so mesmerized with the phone in her hand that I couldn’t imagine why she even came to the hospital to see me.
The younger people in my family stifle a laugh when they are again reminded I have no phone. I’m the old lady, out of sync. But they can’t even handwrite; they’re so conditioned to texting, that they can only write on paper in block letters. To actually pen a personal, paper letter (like snail mail) would be an incongruous hardship rather than something of grace and courtesy (or even romance [how can a phone text be like a love letter you keep forever, tied with a satin ribbon in a keepsake box?]). They are college graduates and nearing their thirties, but they don’t really even have a signature/cursive for signing a legal document.
But my husband has also now gotten too addicted to the phone, namely social media (he says he’s also doing a lot of other ‘reading’ but when is too much info just too much info, muddying up our brains with trivia and ‘stuff’ that will make no difference in our lives?). There was that piece somewhere, years ago, which spoke about the guy that was so busy looking down at his phone that he might have just missed the future love of his life walking right past him.
We have a rule now. When we go to the beach, my husband is not allowed to bring his phone. He isn’t to be distracted with ‘breaking news’, Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube or anything else: He is to observe the changing light over the ocean, the sound of the gulls and the waves breaking on shore, the feel of sea breeze on his face, the taste of the salt spray on his skin, the feel of the wet sand beneath his toes. And if he should feel the need to speak a prayer aloud for the beauty around him, let that happen.
Our advanced media has its place. Where would we be without it. But sometimes you do indeed need to just Put.The.Phone.Down. We are humans. We shouldn’t be ruled by ‘machines’.
I love the positives of tech and there are many. And it’s almost never the tech that is the problem. It’s the people who abuse it.
Stay safe, Vicki.
The David Phlox is beautiful. I wonder how it would do here……hmmm…..may have to see.
I agree about the phone. I may have to turn mine off for a few hours (after talking with my grandkids). Then I could turn it on when my father-in-law is out and about or about the time my hubby is due to come home. I like it on then because he has a 45 minute drive and I would like to think he would call if he ran into difficulty.
Take care
Blessings and HUGS,
Kim
Sounds like a smart way to handle it, Kim!
Stay safe.
And in stores and restaurants! How I hate being forced to listen to other people’s conversations. I feel like a truly captive audience, held against my will. And when they put it on speaker, I just about lose my mind.
Hope you enjoy your sunshine! We received about 1/2 in of rain yesterday, and not the hail or wind. It is still really humid here. Have a great day and take care.
Oh yes, that drives me cray!
Very, very humid here as well, Chris.
Stay safe!
Hi Claudia, remember the days when if you wanted to know if someone was home, you actually went to their house and knocked at the door! Growing up we didn’t have a house phone until 1972, before that if I wanted to phone someone, I had to go to the red phone box a couple of streets away.
I don’t have a Facebook account either. I have very few family members and share a What’s App group with my three cousins who mostly post photos of their grandchildren.
My friend is lovely but her phone is constantly pinging and she can’t resist looking so she’s always saying “Excuse me, it might important”. It rarely is.
A couple of years ago at Christmas, the local community choir were giving a concert and there was a guy sat behind me who hadn’t switched off his phone. It rang once and I heard his partner tell him to switch it off but he didn’t.
A short while later whilst a guy on the stage was performing a solo it rang again. He stopped in mid song and said to the audience “Is it Simon Cowell?” which brought the house down!😂
Happy Thursday
Yes, I remember those days!
What a great response from the soloist! Perfect!
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
Not as attached to my cellphone but do spend too much time on my laptop. I’ve started to make a habit of time set aside in the morning, off for the rest of the day and back on for a couple of hours in the early evening and then done. I read several blogs, watch various (regular) YouTube channels, and occasionally read stories on my laptop. The use of the mouse is starting to irritate an already previously injured shoulder so try to use the arrows and the finger pad more often but the best thing is to just shut it down. I find myself even reading “news” type articles that I avoid by not having the tv on and I really have no interest in most of it. I think I get lazy about what I read. So, after this comment, I will be shutting down for the rest of the day until tonight. Have a good day and enjoy your quiet time. BTW – we would give anything to have some of your rain. We’ve had a total, in our area of 3/4″ since the first part of June, after a not very snowy winter and very little Spring rains. It’s getting bad. 11 days in a row at over 90 degree temps mid June and a lot of upper 80’s with an occasional 70 plus temp (but way too rare) and are slatted for more 90’s next week. Fire risk increases every day. It’s starting to get scary. Other parts of Minnesota have been a bit more lucky but a significant portion of the state need rain.
We’re dealing with extremes in most of the country. Either too much rain and flooding or no rain, high temps, and forest fires. Earth is out of balance…
Stay safe, Ranee.
I feel the exact same way as everyone here about cell phones. Nice to know I’m not an old fart after all. There are a convenience that’s for sure, but I certainly am not attached at the hip to mine. My biggest pet peeve with cell phones is people walking and talking while you are just quietly trying to enjoy the great outdoors. We notice that all the time when we are outside….greatly annoying. Who wants to listen to other people’s conversations?
Your flowers are lovely! Happy to hear you are getting sunshine…it’s about time! ;)
We see that too. What is so important that it can’t wait?
Stay safe, Donna!
You turned into an “old fart” and I am officially “a prude”. Must say, I never saw it coming. And I was in my prime during the 60’s!!!
Ha! I never saw it coming, either!
Stay safe!
I am not on any social media exc reading a few blogs
Just Do not see the importance and my family and I are close I do not need social media to keep up with them. I saw what some of the sites can do when I taught. I guess the most exasperating was several years ago when a man talked on his the whole time we were in line at the funeral home. Unbelievable
I don’t use social media to keep up with my family. I use it to keep in contact with former students, friends from childhood and grad school, and actors and colleagues in the theater. When you work in the arts social media is invaluable and a way in which to keep in touch with people I care about and/or have worked with.
Stay safe, Brenda.
I agree about the cellphone use! I see too many people with their eyes on their phones instead of connecting with the people standing around them. It’s a shame!
It is! I agree.
Stay safe, Ellen.
Claudia — agree so o o much re: cell phones — I abhor them !! I see old men in grocery trying to shop while talking on their phone. A) they can’t hear, B) why would it be necessary for a long winded conversation, C) what would be so important that could not wait an hour until they were outside in their car???
this situation is not just about young people altho it is an addiction w/them, for sure. My phone goes w/me as I travel from home BUT it remains in the car while I’m getting groceries (my only travel from home these days). guess I classify as an old fart, too, although much older one than you. stay safe/healthy
I agree, but I take my phone with me into the grocery store. First, it records my steps taken, and second, when you’re a blogger, you never know when you’ll see something you have to take a picture of!
Stay safe, Linda!
Bonjour Claudia,
I haven’t been around much lately on the blogsphere or Instagram. I needed a break from the screens although I read my favorite blogs of which yours is part.
It is always a pleasure to read it . I agree with you. Cell phones are too addictive. I didn’t own one until I was 65! I’m not addicted at all. I use it as a practical object and that’s it. I don’t look at it every five minutes to see if there’s anything new.
When i am not in the mood for painting I don’t force myself. I wait for inspiration to return.
I like your phlox. I have some in the garden and they inspire me.
Have good weekend and portez-vous bien
So good to hear from you, Helene!
I hope you’re well!
Stay safe.
Thank you Claudia. We are well (fully vaccinated) but still precautionous because the Delta variant is spreading very fast by now in France.
Big hugs to you
xoxo
Cell phones are a huge time waster. I have managed to keep my use under control otherwise it stresses me. I don’t do Twitter, only follow 2 people on Instagram and only look at Facebook occasionally since it depresses me. Still I manage to be informed and interact with lots of friends.
I still get sucked into reading too many emails. Oh well. Setting a time to get off does help.
I agree that phones have changed the quality of time with people but for better or worse they are here to stay.
Good luck with your mini cell phone vacation.
Thanks so much, Kay.
Stay safe!
I couldn’t agree with you more about phones. I don’t even have a smart phone– just an old flipper (and my landline) I”ll probably upgrade soon and dump the landline but I plan to use the new cell like a landline — that is, keep it on the charger at home unless I’m headed somewhere that I think I might need it (like a road trip or night driving, sketchy area, etc., or at the lake) or if I think I might want to use the phone camera instead of my regular. They are disruptive and I hate it that it is hard to even have a conversation without a text going off or a call — and people always check! I understand if expecting an emergency — a sick parent or a child — but just to check in? Nope. However, if I DO get one, I may actually post something on my instagram page, which is empty!
And I’m with you on the overkill of social media posts, just to keep it out there, much less in a theatre where they shouldn’t even be allowed. They’re fine for safety, but the rest of it? No, I’m acting like an old fart, too. And I’m perfectly OK with that!
I think it gives some people us a false sense of importance. “I have a call coming in..” etc.
I’m okay with being an old fart, too, Jeanie.
Stay safe!