Sunday, August 26, 2012

August 26, 2012

Today would have been my grandmother Hazel Clarke's 101st birthday. She was a very eccentric woman who probably had more influence on my life than my mother did. Grandma Hazel was very active until her final few months. She was extremely outspoken. She liked being around children- children at the mall, her 2 grandchildren, and her great-granddaughter Allie. I'm pretty certain she was the reason my parents had me so soon after they married- at the time, Grandma Hazel was 60 and had no grandchildren to brag about. She died 3 days after her 84th birthday, much younger than her older sister Doris (who died 4 years later at age 98) and her youngest sister Mollie (who died last November at age 92).



My father, her only biological child, died 4 months after she did, at age 60. Neither of them lived to see the 21st Century. My father thought it would be all computers and spaceships by now. He may have gotten the computer part right. There aren't as many room-size or desktop computers as there were in the late 1990s, but there are far more laptop computers- and smaller notebook computers- and even smaller tablet computers, which are used for reading as well as internet stuff. And now most cellphones could qualify as computers- especially I-phones and Android phones (whose Google-created OS uses the same basic premise as the Ubuntu Linux OS on which this blog is being written).


About 8 days ago, I found a dead shark near my residence (echoes of what my father caught while fishing at Jacksonville Beach some 65-70 years ago). Thankfully I didn't find any of that shark's relatives swimming near the beach yesterday. The waves were rough enough to knock me down a few times.

Last weekend, I ended my 9 month computer drought by purchasing a used laptop. I get free wi-fi in my building, and now I have time and means to put photos, blogs, updated family trees, and stuff online without being at the mercy of the local libraries. Now hopefully, I can start searching for better paying employment, less expensive housing (after beach season is over), and maybe find that special someone or reconnect with old friends. But I don't want to spend too much time online- like certain relatives who were completely computer illiterate when my grandmother and father were still alive.