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Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
You have an electric chainsaw @lobster ? What an extravagance…
Our neighbours are currently on holiday but sometimes have BBQs which causes the smell of burnt meat to drift over our garden. Then my mother sometimes says, “I fancy a grilled chicken” and she tells me about the time my father brought home a rotisserie oven when I was little. And then I remind her, we have been vegetarian for 48 years…
You have an electric chainsaw @lobster ? What an extravagance…
I used to be a gardener. It is battery operated. Reserved for natural tree fall. You will be pleased to know I am kosher, halal and vegan. In my dreams. In real life I eat what is available, a Maitreya speciality/necessity (like the olde Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni did)...
0
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
You have an electric chainsaw @lobster ? What an extravagance…
I used to be a gardener. It is battery operated. Reserved for natural tree fall. You will be pleased to know I am kosher, halal and vegan. In my dreams. In real life I eat what is available, a Maitreya speciality/necessity (like the olde Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni did)...
It is all perfectly fine… I understand the tantric impulse to go chain sawing the undergrowth!
I harvested the tomatoes the hedgehog gardeners have produced. There is a patch of land that was used as a landfill that we cleared up and added some fresh soil to put some plants and started watering the area and leaving catfood and water for the hogs. Well...loads..heaps of tomato plants have emerged and managed to harvest two or three different types of tomatoes...all because those hogs ate tomatoes somewhere else and pood the seeds. Good creatures!
...and delicious. Twice as smart as dogs. https://www.lovepork.co.uk/discover-pork/nutrition/is-pork-healthy/
I try and get meat once every two weeks ideally. If the choice is between pigs or toms. Think the toms would be my choice. That and fish (I am more lobster than Buddhist)
I have never regretted studying and practising with the good people of religion. Even when I am in the presence of privileged Americans, Europeans etc.
Sometimes we live and learn. Keep up the good work. https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-diversity-in-america/
Me dog be shedding! Dogo hair everywhere! But she is such 70+ pounds of "Hi! Let's Play". And those eye! Oh those eyes!
But, on July 4, we found her hiding under the granddaughter's bed, in the shower stall, and, finally, way back in my closet. We don't fault her as both my daughter and I had problems with the highly illegal (in this city and county) fireworks until we reached an accord with our "wild monkeys". Commercial grade stuff 360.
Everyone here survived, but we did hear some emergency vehicles in the distance a few times.
Gotta go, that squirrel is looking at me kind of strangely there.....
So chia seeds give it a pudding like texture and if you add a banana to it...wow! My stomach is already enjoying and eating it quite slowly BuddhaoatZ
3
personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
@Kotishka said:
So chia seeds give it a pudding like texture and if you add a banana to it...wow! My stomach is already enjoying and eating it quite slowly BuddhaoatZ
I genuinely understand and appreciate the feeling of finding a meal that is pleasant and satisfying while also being generally good for you.
I've been a long time oatmeal for breakfast consumer. I have it with a 1/2 cup of homemade granola which also contains chia seeds and a banana. Some things are classics.
To feel a bit less hungry until lunch I added 5 more grams of oatZ and more 5 grams of chia seeds for extra-pudding like texture. It is amazing! All you oatmeal adepts are a league ahead!!!!
1
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
Matthieu van der Poel won the final stage of this year’s Tour de France on the Champs Elysee in Paris! It’s a special achievement to win the last stage in Paris especially as a non-sprinter, he is a very promising rider.
Our dog is in the final phase of her shedding. Anyone with a super shedder (looking at you, Husky people), know. Every day, we can follow our dog's trail, not from paw prints, but from her trail of hair. FIR COATS ANYONE?
@Lionduck said:
Our dog is in the final phase of her shedding. Anyone with a super shedder (looking at you, Husky people), know. Every day, we can follow our dog's trail, not from paw prints, but from her trail of hair. FIR COATS ANYONE?
Time to take up hair dog spinning for clothe making?
I think that is a thing...can be used as mulch or soil conditioner...
Yep it is a cottage industry in the UK (also available for cats...) https://www.devinespinning.co.uk/
1
Fosdickin its eye are mirrored far off mountainsAlaska, USAVeteran
edited July 30
Yes, my wife used to spin dog hair and knit Tam o'shanters. Very warm, always smelled kind of ripe.
Well I arrived back in Aotearoa Saturday evening after spending just over a month overseas visiting my children and siblings in the UK and Europe. Going over I had a 12 hour stopover in Beijing (I got to stay in a transit hotel not far from the airport). On my way home I spent three and half days in Beijing. I booked into a traditional Chinese hotel in the city centre (well one of the centres) for three nights.
I visited Tiananmen Square and walked (in part) the Great Wall of China plus rode on a bullet train....I can remove them from my bucket list...
The videos are short.
It was daylight when I left my hotel to walk to Tiananmen Square which was not far. Little did I know that there would be big queues and security checks along the way.
The Great Wall and the surrounding scenery was/is amazing, but it was very steep in parts and quite hard going in 32 C with little shade.
On the bullet train to the Great Wall.
Gondola ride up to the Great Wall
The walk begins...
How steep the Great Wall is in parts
Very sore feet, aching legs and perspiring like a water fountain ...On the home stretch (Thank Buddha for that )
When making my way back to the train station I stopped to watch this Shadow Carving Craftsman At The Great Wall : He Works Using Mongolian Marble.
2
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
Hi @Shoshin1 did you mean to make all those videos private that you linked to? It sounds like quite a trip to Europe and back…
0
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
edited August 26
I’m finding I’m in a more somber mood these days… feeling the weight a bit of all the people who have passed away and disappeared from my life in recent years… my uncles Kees and Henk, my aunt Elly, my stepfather and most of all my dad. It’s just me and my mother now.
I used to always be quite cheerful, a joyous person, usually with a smile on my face. But recently I have been surprising serious and anxious expressions on my face when I would return from being concentrated on something.
From time to time, the weight of those who or whom have passed flows over.
My parents and all my aunts and uncles are gone. My older brother and a son, friends..my graduation class will be having it's 60 year reunion with more on the wall of memory than remaining.
But, from anther light, for those still around and those who have fallen, for whatever span of time we each have or had, we all enjoyed the jewel of life. To die, one must first live. So, even as we miss the ones who have gone, we celebrate having shared our lives with theirs. We celebrate sharing and having shared the priceless jewel of life.
A toast - To those we have known, those we now know and those we shall know,
THANK YOU, ALL!
Yes, I’ve seen them now. That was quite a trip! And not many western tourists…
I may have seen a couple of Western-looking people in Tiananmen Square and maybe four at the Great Wall.
It's interesting, during my 12-hour stopover in Beijing on my way to Europe, I traveled to the hotel with a young Russian Kiwi woman who was on the same plane. She had attended school and college in Aotearoa and now lives there. She spoke English fluently and was heading to visit her grandmother in Siberia.
At the end of the Great Wall walk, as I was making my way down to the train station, a Russian woman and her son approached me and started a conversation. They were from Moscow, her son had won a scholarship to one of Moscow’s top universities. The woman was quite fluent in English, though with a Russian accent, and her son spoke English too.
We walked together for a while towards the station, and she shared some insights about life in Russia.
The only ‘Westerners’ I really interacted with in Beijing were Russians. I had much more interaction with the local Chinese population, despite the language barrier. Most of our communication was through a translation app on my or their phone.
I had to get a reconditioned iPhone for the trip because I needed a phone that could support an eSIM so I could use it in China.
3
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
edited August 29
Good morning, everyone.
On buying a new iPad I decided to take Apple up on their offer of 40% off a years subscription to the Apple TV streaming service. I’ve been enjoying Pluribus, and will probably catch up on Foundation next…
@Jeroen Apple should be paying you for all of the positive sentiments towards it that you have been sharing with us. I have a similar affinity with the public-bycicle system and company that was introduced in my city a year ago. We should be their sales reps!
1
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
Good companies deserve good word-of-mouth recommendations. But really I was reminded by @person’s positive experience with Apple TV when this deal came along, and the last time I had an Apple TV subscription was a couple of years ago and I enjoyed a few things, and I was wondering about the new seasons.
Nothing special here.
Just completed an episode of "Do we have AC or not" - Now we do.
Our warped car gate is now repaired.
Battling with the squirrels over the coming persimmon harvest.
Slept through the lunar eclipse.
Dtr and Stepson now on speaking terms
Everyone is reasonably healthy here
The sun is shining and we can, for now, walk outside without melting.
It is raining, in September, in Southern California.
There will be reports of flooding and probably mud slides.
The Labor Day Bar-B-Qs will have to move inside with a slight change in the cooking techniques.
Oh well, FREE SHOWERS! Bring your own soap and towels.
Peace to all
0
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
You know what they have been saying, that it looks like a bumper El Niño year, which means all kinds of unusual weather. We had an exceptionally early and hot summer in Europe, and now August which is usually the hottest month has been wet and chill, and most people are saying Autumn has arrived early as well.
Smore, the dog, keeps waiting for her "Friend" the squirrel, to show up. Said squirrel is not coming out as soap and towels have not been provided.
1
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
edited September 13
“We are often called “the elderly,” but that quiet label hides a truth most people rarely pause to consider: we are the last living witnesses of a world that no longer exists.
If you look closely, you might notice grey hair, slower steps, or the quiet patience that time alone can teach. But if you truly listen to our stories, you will discover something far more extraordinary. We are not simply older people moving through the final chapters of life.
We are the survivors of one of the most breathtaking transformations in human history — a generation that walked from the slow, deliberate rhythm of an analog world into the dazzling speed of a digital one without ever losing our sense of humanity along the way.
Our journey began in a very different place. Many of us were born in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, when the scars of World War II were still fresh across Europe and Asia and the world was slowly learning how to hope again. Cities rose from rubble. Families rebuilt lives after years of uncertainty. Childhood unfolded in ways that would feel almost unrecognizable to younger generations today.
Our toys were simple: marbles played in dusty yards, hopscotch drawn on cracked sidewalks, checkers and cards gathered around kitchen tables while the smell of dinner filled the house. When the streetlights flickered on in the evening, it was the universal signal that childhood adventures were over for the day and it was time to go home.
There were no smartphones, no streaming videos, no endless scroll of digital distractions. Instead, we built our memories in the real world — with scraped knees, laughter echoing down neighbourhood streets, and friendships that formed face-to-face, without the mediation of screens.
Music became one of the defining soundtracks of our youth. The 1960s and 1970s arrived like a wave of colour and rebellion. We watched culture shift around us, carried by electric guitars and voices that dared to question the world.
For many of us, gatherings like the legendary Woodstock Festival of 1969 symbolized something powerful: the belief that peace, music and community could reshape the future. Hundreds of thousands of young people stood together in muddy fields, listening to artists who poured raw emotion into towering speakers known as the Wall of Sound. Those concerts were not merely entertainment; they were moments when strangers felt like a single generation singing the same hope under an open sky.
Education looked different then, too. Our notebooks were filled with handwritten notes carefully copied from chalkboards. Research required patience, long hours in libraries, and stacks of heavy books rather than a quick internet search. We learned to slow down and think through ideas because information did not arrive instantly. Mistakes were corrected with erasers and ink, not with the click of a delete button.
Love carried a different rhythm as well. We fell in love while vinyl records spun on turntables and cassette tapes clicked softly inside plastic players. Music became the background to first dances, long conversations, and dreams about the future. Those relationships grew into marriages, families, and lives built step-by-step through the 1980s and 1990s — decades that saw technology begin to reshape the world around us.
Yet nothing compares to the bridge our generation has crossed. We are the only generation to have experienced an entirely analog childhood and a fully digital adulthood.
We remember waiting days — or sometimes weeks — for handwritten letters to arrive in the mail. We remember rotary telephones and party lines where neighbours could accidentally overhear conversations. Communication required patience and anticipation. Today, we can see the face of a loved one across the ocean instantly on a screen small enough to fit in a pocket.
The world changed in ways few could have imagined. We watched humanity land on the Moon in 1969, a moment when millions of people sat in living rooms staring at black-and-white televisions as Neil Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on another world.
We saw the rise of personal computers, the birth of the internet, and eventually the arrival of smartphones that placed entire libraries of knowledge in our hands. Machines that once filled entire rooms now exist on devices lighter than a paperback book. We moved from punch cards and mechanical tools to artificial intelligence and global networks connecting billions of people instantly. And through every shift, we adapted.
Our bodies carry the marks of the times we lived through as well. We grew up during fears of polio and tuberculosis, illnesses that once terrified entire communities before vaccines helped bring them under control. We witnessed the global challenges of pandemics and health crises across decades, including the recent silence and uncertainty of COVID-19, which reminded the world that resilience is still required in every generation.
Science itself transformed before our eyes. We saw the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, the decoding of the human genome at the turn of the century, and the early steps into gene therapy and advanced medicine. Transportation evolved from simple bicycles and steam engines to hybrid vehicles and electric cars gliding almost silently through city streets.
Few generations have witnessed such sweeping change. And yet, despite everything that evolved around us, certain things remain unchanged. We still understand the joy of a cold glass bottle of lemonade on a hot afternoon. We still remember the taste of vegetables picked straight from a garden. We still know the value of a long conversation that unfolds slowly without a keyboard or screen interrupting it.
Our memories stretch across decades. We have celebrated births, mourned losses, watched friends depart, and carried their stories forward. Those of us who remain share something rare: the experience of standing at the crossroads of history, holding memories from a world that younger generations know only through photographs and stories.
But we are not relics. We are living bridges. Our perspective reminds the modern world that progress does not have to erase wisdom. The speed of technology does not have to replace patience, kindness or reflection. We remember what life felt like before everything moved so fast — and that memory carries quiet lessons worth sharing.
So when someone calls us “elderly,” we can smile. Because behind that word lies something extraordinary. We are the generation that crossed two centuries, witnessed eight decades of transformation, and walked from the age of handwritten letters to the era of artificial intelligence.
What a life we have lived. What a remarkable story we continue to carry. And if you belong to this generation, take a moment today to look in the mirror and recognize something powerful.
You are not simply growing older. You are living history. You are part of a generation that will always remain one of a kind. And perhaps, in the quietest and most meaningful way, you are becoming legendary.”
Based on the reccomendation of Bob Harwood, a Zen master and also businessman, I try to buy all non-perishable household items that I repeatedly use when they are heavily discounted. Then, I buy a lot. Today I bought 9 packets of toothpaste at a great price. Great success! 😃
@marcitko
Ah, happiness resides in life's small victories.
After all, great victories are the sum of many small victories even as a lake is the summation of so many drops of water.
I shall endeavor to apply my missives and mishaps in the appropriate category.
Sometimes, I will succeed.
Sometimes, well...Opps!
0
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
I’ve started participating with a TV programme called ‘Nederland in Beweging’, it’s a short 15 minute daily show on Dutch television in which you do exercises in front of your tv, following along with the presenters. It’s a full-body set of exercises, intended to focus on condition and flexibility and coordination.
It starts with a warming up, continues with sections ‘good for your heart’, ‘good for your legs’ and ‘good for your torso’, and then a cooling down. It isn't really a replacement for cardio training or strength training, but as a short programme for the whole body it is very good.
It is very accessible, I do it together with my mother, who is 77 and suffers from deafness and poor balance, so she does a lot of the exercises only halfway. It is aimed more at my age, which is 54, where people are still flexible and capable but might have a few beginning problems.
Comments
You have an electric chainsaw @lobster ? What an extravagance…
Our neighbours are currently on holiday but sometimes have BBQs which causes the smell of burnt meat to drift over our garden. Then my mother sometimes says, “I fancy a grilled chicken” and she tells me about the time my father brought home a rotisserie oven when I was little. And then I remind her, we have been vegetarian for 48 years…
@Jeroen
I used to be a gardener. It is battery operated. Reserved for natural tree fall. You will be pleased to know I am kosher, halal and vegan. In my dreams. In real life I eat what is available, a Maitreya speciality/necessity (like the olde Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni did)...
It is all perfectly fine… I understand the tantric impulse to go chain sawing the undergrowth!
I harvested the tomatoes the hedgehog gardeners have produced. There is a patch of land that was used as a landfill that we cleared up and added some fresh soil to put some plants and started watering the area and leaving catfood and water for the hogs. Well...loads..heaps of tomato plants have emerged and managed to harvest two or three different types of tomatoes...all because those hogs ate tomatoes somewhere else and pood the seeds. Good creatures!
...and delicious. Twice as smart as dogs.
https://www.lovepork.co.uk/discover-pork/nutrition/is-pork-healthy/
I try and get meat once every two weeks ideally. If the choice is between pigs or toms. Think the toms would be my choice. That and fish (I am more lobster than Buddhist)
Chomp!
I have never regretted studying and practising with the good people of religion. Even when I am in the presence of privileged Americans, Europeans etc.
Sometimes we live and learn. Keep up the good work.
https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-diversity-in-america/
Me dog be shedding! Dogo hair everywhere! But she is such 70+ pounds of "Hi! Let's Play". And those eye! Oh those eyes!
But, on July 4, we found her hiding under the granddaughter's bed, in the shower stall, and, finally, way back in my closet. We don't fault her as both my daughter and I had problems with the highly illegal (in this city and county) fireworks until we reached an accord with our "wild monkeys". Commercial grade stuff 360.
Everyone here survived, but we did hear some emergency vehicles in the distance a few times.
Gotta go, that squirrel is looking at me kind of strangely there.....
I heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
So I had two.
Looking forward to lunch.
I'm trying to stick to overnight oats for breakfast and wow! Delicious!
Recipe:
45 grams of oatZ
120ml milk (skimmed)
120grams of full-fat coconut greek yoghurt
10grams chia seeds
Cinnamon
MIX
SLEEP
Rise and shine!
So chia seeds give it a pudding like texture and if you add a banana to it...wow! My stomach is already enjoying and eating it quite slowly
BuddhaoatZ
I genuinely understand and appreciate the feeling of finding a meal that is pleasant and satisfying while also being generally good for you.
I've been a long time oatmeal for breakfast consumer. I have it with a 1/2 cup of homemade granola which also contains chia seeds and a banana. Some things are classics.
@person
To feel a bit less hungry until lunch I added 5 more grams of oatZ and more 5 grams of chia seeds for extra-pudding like texture. It is amazing! All you oatmeal adepts are a league ahead!!!!
Matthieu van der Poel won the final stage of this year’s Tour de France on the Champs Elysee in Paris! It’s a special achievement to win the last stage in Paris especially as a non-sprinter, he is a very promising rider.
Our dog is in the final phase of her shedding. Anyone with a super shedder (looking at you, Husky people), know. Every day, we can follow our dog's trail, not from paw prints, but from her trail of hair. FIR COATS ANYONE?
Time to take up hair dog spinning for clothe making?
I think that is a thing...can be used as mulch or soil conditioner...
Yep it is a cottage industry in the UK (also available for cats...)
https://www.devinespinning.co.uk/
Yes, my wife used to spin dog hair and knit Tam o'shanters. Very warm, always smelled kind of ripe.
Well I arrived back in Aotearoa Saturday evening after spending just over a month overseas visiting my children and siblings in the UK and Europe. Going over I had a 12 hour stopover in Beijing (I got to stay in a transit hotel not far from the airport). On my way home I spent three and half days in Beijing. I booked into a traditional Chinese hotel in the city centre (well one of the centres) for three nights.
I visited Tiananmen Square and walked (in part) the Great Wall of China plus rode on a bullet train....I can remove them from my bucket list...
The videos are short.
It was daylight when I left my hotel to walk to Tiananmen Square which was not far. Little did I know that there would be big queues and security checks along the way.
The Great Wall and the surrounding scenery was/is amazing, but it was very steep in parts and quite hard going in 32 C with little shade.
On the bullet train to the Great Wall.
Gondola ride up to the Great Wall
The walk begins...
How steep the Great Wall is in parts
Very sore feet, aching legs and perspiring like a water fountain ...On the home stretch (Thank Buddha for that
)
When making my way back to the train station I stopped to watch this Shadow Carving Craftsman At The Great Wall : He Works Using Mongolian Marble.
Hi @Shoshin1 did you mean to make all those videos private that you linked to? It sounds like quite a trip to Europe and back…
I’m finding I’m in a more somber mood these days… feeling the weight a bit of all the people who have passed away and disappeared from my life in recent years… my uncles Kees and Henk, my aunt Elly, my stepfather and most of all my dad. It’s just me and my mother now.
I used to always be quite cheerful, a joyous person, usually with a smile on my face. But recently I have been surprising serious and anxious expressions on my face when I would return from being concentrated on something.
From time to time, the weight of those who or whom have passed flows over.
My parents and all my aunts and uncles are gone. My older brother and a son, friends..my graduation class will be having it's 60 year reunion with more on the wall of memory than remaining.
But, from anther light, for those still around and those who have fallen, for whatever span of time we each have or had, we all enjoyed the jewel of life. To die, one must first live. So, even as we miss the ones who have gone, we celebrate having shared our lives with theirs. We celebrate sharing and having shared the priceless jewel of life.
A toast - To those we have known, those we now know and those we shall know,
THANK YOU, ALL!
Peace to all
Can you access the videos @Jeroen ?
No… it just says the videos are private and you should sign in. I am signed in to my Google and YouTube account and don’t have access.
Guys, Google now has changed its policies. We are the data, info they use to train their AI. You might like to use:
peertube
https://fedi.garden/tag/peertube/
Can you view them now ?
Yes, I’ve seen them now. That was quite a trip! And not many western tourists…
I may have seen a couple of Western-looking people in Tiananmen Square and maybe four at the Great Wall.
It's interesting, during my 12-hour stopover in Beijing on my way to Europe, I traveled to the hotel with a young Russian Kiwi woman who was on the same plane. She had attended school and college in Aotearoa and now lives there. She spoke English fluently and was heading to visit her grandmother in Siberia.
At the end of the Great Wall walk, as I was making my way down to the train station, a Russian woman and her son approached me and started a conversation. They were from Moscow, her son had won a scholarship to one of Moscow’s top universities. The woman was quite fluent in English, though with a Russian accent, and her son spoke English too.
We walked together for a while towards the station, and she shared some insights about life in Russia.
The only ‘Westerners’ I really interacted with in Beijing were Russians. I had much more interaction with the local Chinese population, despite the language barrier. Most of our communication was through a translation app on my or their phone.
I had to get a reconditioned iPhone for the trip because I needed a phone that could support an eSIM so I could use it in China.
Good morning, everyone.
On buying a new iPad I decided to take Apple up on their offer of 40% off a years subscription to the Apple TV streaming service. I’ve been enjoying Pluribus, and will probably catch up on Foundation next…
@Jeroen Apple should be paying you for all of the positive sentiments towards it that you have been sharing with us. I have a similar affinity with the public-bycicle system and company that was introduced in my city a year ago.
We should be their sales reps! 
Good companies deserve good word-of-mouth recommendations. But really I was reminded by @person’s positive experience with Apple TV when this deal came along, and the last time I had an Apple TV subscription was a couple of years ago and I enjoyed a few things, and I was wondering about the new seasons.
Nothing special here.
Just completed an episode of "Do we have AC or not" - Now we do.
Our warped car gate is now repaired.
Battling with the squirrels over the coming persimmon harvest.
Slept through the lunar eclipse.
Dtr and Stepson now on speaking terms
Everyone is reasonably healthy here
The sun is shining and we can, for now, walk outside without melting.
Peace to all
Short interlude from the muppets
and now back to the random announcements.
Nothing to announce here.
Oh wait my tea is getting cold. I know. I'll drink it tepid....
It is raining, in September, in Southern California.
There will be reports of flooding and probably mud slides.
The Labor Day Bar-B-Qs will have to move inside with a slight change in the cooking techniques.
Oh well, FREE SHOWERS! Bring your own soap and towels.
Peace to all
You know what they have been saying, that it looks like a bumper El Niño year, which means all kinds of unusual weather. We had an exceptionally early and hot summer in Europe, and now August which is usually the hottest month has been wet and chill, and most people are saying Autumn has arrived early as well.
And Krakatoa has been erupting.
Smore, the dog, keeps waiting for her "Friend" the squirrel, to show up. Said squirrel is not coming out as soap and towels have not been provided.
“We are often called “the elderly,” but that quiet label hides a truth most people rarely pause to consider: we are the last living witnesses of a world that no longer exists.
If you look closely, you might notice grey hair, slower steps, or the quiet patience that time alone can teach. But if you truly listen to our stories, you will discover something far more extraordinary. We are not simply older people moving through the final chapters of life.
We are the survivors of one of the most breathtaking transformations in human history — a generation that walked from the slow, deliberate rhythm of an analog world into the dazzling speed of a digital one without ever losing our sense of humanity along the way.
Our journey began in a very different place. Many of us were born in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, when the scars of World War II were still fresh across Europe and Asia and the world was slowly learning how to hope again. Cities rose from rubble. Families rebuilt lives after years of uncertainty. Childhood unfolded in ways that would feel almost unrecognizable to younger generations today.
Our toys were simple: marbles played in dusty yards, hopscotch drawn on cracked sidewalks, checkers and cards gathered around kitchen tables while the smell of dinner filled the house. When the streetlights flickered on in the evening, it was the universal signal that childhood adventures were over for the day and it was time to go home.
There were no smartphones, no streaming videos, no endless scroll of digital distractions. Instead, we built our memories in the real world — with scraped knees, laughter echoing down neighbourhood streets, and friendships that formed face-to-face, without the mediation of screens.
Music became one of the defining soundtracks of our youth. The 1960s and 1970s arrived like a wave of colour and rebellion. We watched culture shift around us, carried by electric guitars and voices that dared to question the world.
For many of us, gatherings like the legendary Woodstock Festival of 1969 symbolized something powerful: the belief that peace, music and community could reshape the future. Hundreds of thousands of young people stood together in muddy fields, listening to artists who poured raw emotion into towering speakers known as the Wall of Sound. Those concerts were not merely entertainment; they were moments when strangers felt like a single generation singing the same hope under an open sky.
Education looked different then, too. Our notebooks were filled with handwritten notes carefully copied from chalkboards. Research required patience, long hours in libraries, and stacks of heavy books rather than a quick internet search. We learned to slow down and think through ideas because information did not arrive instantly. Mistakes were corrected with erasers and ink, not with the click of a delete button.
Love carried a different rhythm as well. We fell in love while vinyl records spun on turntables and cassette tapes clicked softly inside plastic players. Music became the background to first dances, long conversations, and dreams about the future. Those relationships grew into marriages, families, and lives built step-by-step through the 1980s and 1990s — decades that saw technology begin to reshape the world around us.
Yet nothing compares to the bridge our generation has crossed. We are the only generation to have experienced an entirely analog childhood and a fully digital adulthood.
We remember waiting days — or sometimes weeks — for handwritten letters to arrive in the mail. We remember rotary telephones and party lines where neighbours could accidentally overhear conversations. Communication required patience and anticipation. Today, we can see the face of a loved one across the ocean instantly on a screen small enough to fit in a pocket.
The world changed in ways few could have imagined. We watched humanity land on the Moon in 1969, a moment when millions of people sat in living rooms staring at black-and-white televisions as Neil Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on another world.
We saw the rise of personal computers, the birth of the internet, and eventually the arrival of smartphones that placed entire libraries of knowledge in our hands. Machines that once filled entire rooms now exist on devices lighter than a paperback book. We moved from punch cards and mechanical tools to artificial intelligence and global networks connecting billions of people instantly. And through every shift, we adapted.
Our bodies carry the marks of the times we lived through as well. We grew up during fears of polio and tuberculosis, illnesses that once terrified entire communities before vaccines helped bring them under control. We witnessed the global challenges of pandemics and health crises across decades, including the recent silence and uncertainty of COVID-19, which reminded the world that resilience is still required in every generation.
Science itself transformed before our eyes. We saw the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, the decoding of the human genome at the turn of the century, and the early steps into gene therapy and advanced medicine. Transportation evolved from simple bicycles and steam engines to hybrid vehicles and electric cars gliding almost silently through city streets.
Few generations have witnessed such sweeping change. And yet, despite everything that evolved around us, certain things remain unchanged. We still understand the joy of a cold glass bottle of lemonade on a hot afternoon. We still remember the taste of vegetables picked straight from a garden. We still know the value of a long conversation that unfolds slowly without a keyboard or screen interrupting it.
Our memories stretch across decades. We have celebrated births, mourned losses, watched friends depart, and carried their stories forward. Those of us who remain share something rare: the experience of standing at the crossroads of history, holding memories from a world that younger generations know only through photographs and stories.
But we are not relics. We are living bridges. Our perspective reminds the modern world that progress does not have to erase wisdom. The speed of technology does not have to replace patience, kindness or reflection. We remember what life felt like before everything moved so fast — and that memory carries quiet lessons worth sharing.
So when someone calls us “elderly,” we can smile. Because behind that word lies something extraordinary. We are the generation that crossed two centuries, witnessed eight decades of transformation, and walked from the age of handwritten letters to the era of artificial intelligence.
What a life we have lived. What a remarkable story we continue to carry. And if you belong to this generation, take a moment today to look in the mirror and recognize something powerful.
You are not simply growing older. You are living history. You are part of a generation that will always remain one of a kind. And perhaps, in the quietest and most meaningful way, you are becoming legendary.”
Based on the reccomendation of Bob Harwood, a Zen master and also businessman, I try to buy all non-perishable household items that I repeatedly use when they are heavily discounted. Then, I buy a lot. Today I bought 9 packets of toothpaste at a great price. Great success! 😃
@marcitko
Ah, happiness resides in life's small victories.
After all, great victories are the sum of many small victories even as a lake is the summation of so many drops of water.
Peace to you
Peace to all
I shall endeavor to apply my missives and mishaps in the appropriate category.
Sometimes, I will succeed.
Sometimes, well...Opps!
I’ve started participating with a TV programme called ‘Nederland in Beweging’, it’s a short 15 minute daily show on Dutch television in which you do exercises in front of your tv, following along with the presenters. It’s a full-body set of exercises, intended to focus on condition and flexibility and coordination.
It starts with a warming up, continues with sections ‘good for your heart’, ‘good for your legs’ and ‘good for your torso’, and then a cooling down. It isn't really a replacement for cardio training or strength training, but as a short programme for the whole body it is very good.
It is very accessible, I do it together with my mother, who is 77 and suffers from deafness and poor balance, so she does a lot of the exercises only halfway. It is aimed more at my age, which is 54, where people are still flexible and capable but might have a few beginning problems.