Grandma and the Microwave Popcorn

I remember not too many years ago, standing in my Grandma Eckhardt's kitchen. She was going to make my Grandpa some popcorn. I couldn't understand why anyone would have a popcorn popper, not now when you can throw a bag in the microwave and voila! Easy, fast, no muss, no fuss.

Later I brought a bag of microwave popcorn to her house and said, "Grandma, watch this." Threw the bag in the microwave, pushed "popcorn" and waited for the "voila!" look from my Grandma. She just looked at me and said, "Well, I really like to use the popcorn popper." Really? Really really? Ah but Grandma! But no muss! No fuss...ah never mind. Give it up. [shrug]

My Great Grandma Haun didn't want to have anything to do with the TV. She would much had rather put a jigsaw puzzle together than watch tv, or even fireworks at our family 4th of July get-togethers. She lived to be 100 and was quite fine without the razzle dazzle.

I ask myself, "Am I next? Will I buck technology, refuse to use that which supposedly makes life easier? "Never!" says me, the technology queen.

But hold on a minute, now I have this Droid. My fancy cell phone that in a short four months, went from 'drives me crazy' device to 'can't live without it.' Sure I Tweet, Facebook, and all those things we now accept as everyday. Have all my contacts, sync information from several sources, run my calendar, email, and even count calories on the damned thing. Can you imagine what my grandmothers would have thought if they saw this today?

But in four short months, I have started doing something I thought I'd never do. Shake my head and just be amazed. Here are a few examples:

Let's talk about the counting calories. These fancy phones have applications that do stuff. No longer are they cell phones, but devices. One app I use all the time is called Calorie Counter. Not only can you enter foods you eat, but you can search for them through your device (exact brand name/item), and it pulls the info. from the web into your device and keeps it in a nifty display that shows your calories, fat, sugar, whatever you are into tracking...carbs, even Weight Watcher points...whatever. The much quicker way, however, is if the item you just ate, take Total Cereal... you grab the box, select "bar code scanner" and just scan the bar code. Bleep. In goes all the nutritional information, serving sizes, etc. Voila! It even has Bud Light Golden Wheat beer (which I store under "favorites" :-) All of this links into a website (free, by the way) called MyFatSecret.com. Wonderful journaling site, discussion groups, recipes, and of course, you enter your weight. It then says, "At this pace you will reach your goal in 2.3 months." (Somehow that keeps getting farther away. Might have something to do with the Bud Wheat.)

OK I'll give the device that. Cool, very handy and extremely useful. But here's the head-shaker. I just downloaded Google Sky Map. Why the heck would I need this? Not sure, except for sheer amazement. With the GPS in the device, it finds your location, shows you the horizon, then you can look into the sky and you can choose what you want it to show: location of planets, constellations, stars and other things I had no idea existed in the sky. I did not see a selection for 'UFO' (giggle, please).

It's crap like that that make me scared. Scared to think, "OMG! Will I never use the microwave for popcorn?" I can't imagine ever not wanting to be the first with the new gadget, the thing that gives me that wide-eyed voila! But every now and then, I shake my head and think there's no way to keep up. Someone smack me...I'm talking like an old person!

I guess I can empathize with my grandmothers. Do you reach a point where you just are fine with what you have, and don't need the new gadget, the thing that supposedly makes your life easier, the voila? I know I'm not there yet, but I have a feeling somewhere I may just reach that point where I'm fine with what I have. But maybe not. Will just have to see.

Until then, bring on the gadgets and the apps! Think maybe it can do something with these wrinkles... Voila!?