New Phone, New Fun

Blackberry Curve 8330

Ann and I were going to get an iPhone for each other for Christmas. But, AT&T does not work very well in two spots that we go frequently. One is were Ann works in southern Wisconsin and the other is Door County. We talked to a number of people who said there AT&T phones did not work very well in either place. So we when for the cheap until the iPhone is available on another carrier. We like Sprint because it works everywhere we go. When I am at a race track or Door County or just about anyplace so far, my Sprint phone works.

Sprint had a deal for two Blackberry Curve 8330 phones for $49.99. So we thought we would go with a smart phone and then upgrade to an iPhone when Sprint gets them next year (hopefully). Now comes the normal learning curve with new technology. Our old phones were mostly just phones. Our new phones are more than just phones. They have a camera, applications, the web, email, texting and more. One think I like very very very much is it syncs with my Mac. Now my Mac contacts and calendar are on my phone. I know this is normal for most people, but for me it has taken a long time to get to this point. Our first Sprint phone should have synced with my Mac, but never did. Not the fault of Apple, but the fault of the phone.

Overall it did not take long to get up to speed with the Blackberry. If I have any fault with the Blackberry is the instruction manual. It is very basic. How to answer the phone, store a number, take a picture, etc. How to load a picture as your background on your phone, not even a clue from the manual. There is also no mention of ringtones or many of the other features of the phone. It has taken a few nights to figure it out.

Now we can text with the best of them, send pictures from our phones to an email address and basically get us closer to the current technology like the iPhone. Now all I need is more time to play with my new toy, find out new features, and then teach Ann how to use them.

Mowing Lawn, Why?

Last of the year!

As I was finishing up on the last (hopefully the last) lawn mowing of the year, I wondered why do we have to mow the lawn? I had time to think about that topic, because it takes almost 2 hours to mow our lawn. That is with a rider with a 42″ mower deck! We mow about once a week for over 6 months. That is over 50 hours of time every year that we could be doing more interesting things.Not to mention the gas used, cost of the lawn mowers, etc.

We can put a man on the moon, but we cannot develop a grass that only grows 2″ to 3″ tall! What is with that? It has to be some sort of conspiracy between the lawn mower companies and the lawn fertilizer companies. The lawn mower companies probably have vaults full of grass seeds that produce grass that only grows 3″ tall. All locked away from the public so they can sell their lawn mowers. Just like the gas companies have fuel systems for cars locked away that get 200 miles to the gallon.

I think with all the genetically modified plants and animals work that is being done for super foods, why not genetically modify grass so it grows only 2″ or 3″ high? No more, no less. How hard can that be? Maybe they could genetically modified grass and add genes from the US Marines. Marines like those close cropped short hair cuts. The end result would be grass that never gets tall enough to have to mow it.