And the hits just keep on coming:
Southwest Airlines planes were grounded nationwide Tuesday for what the carrier called an intermittent technology issue.
But think of all the money they saved by not upgrading their systems for well over a decade…
I can’t really cast nasturtiums, though. My laptop is five years old, I still use Windoze 10 and I haven’t downloaded upgrades to my 8-year-old printer, ever. My car has nearly 130,000 miles on it, my 1911 has fired off close to 30,000 rounds and I still watch DVDs (never got into that blu-ray nonsense). I even read Dead Tree books, not their electronic versions on Kindle, and I still love butter-fried eggs even though they’ll probably kill me. The catalog of things in my life that have never been upgraded is voluminous.
But I’m just one guy, and not a billion-dollar corporation responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.
Only 130,000?
Well, that makes two of us. When I am asked if I have my data backed up, I reply, ” Yes, and I can read it with a candle”.
Recently our mini-fridge seemed to no longer cooling well, then quit altogether. This all started following our last power outage. Fridge was not plugged into surge protector. Fortunately, mini-fridges are dirt simple enough that even a troglodyte like me can understand their inner workings. So, off to YooToob for some learnin’, then dug out my freebie Horror Freight mulitmeter. Turned out the overload (think fuse) did it’s job. Found these on amazon–
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NV8CK4K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Presto changeo, and the beer is cold again. So is the Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit Flavored Vodka. My wife has a taste for Moscow Mules.
” These are the ingredients you’ll need to make a Moscow mule at home:
· Vodka: Moscow mules are traditionally made with vodka.
· Lime: You’ll need the juice for the drink and a wedge for garnish.
· Ice: Moscow mules are cold served over ice.
· Ginger beer: Not to be confused with ginger ale! “
I’m going backwards too. I don’t even have DVDs, or watch any TV except for info or music videos on youtube.
I’m back to reading books, which I get from “Little Free Libraries” while walking to burn off the eggs fried in bacon fat that came from the bacon I ate with the eggs.
The toast was buttered though, and covered with marmalade I buy from a local British shop. Do Americans understand marmalade? Canadians don’t.
“King Kelly” did – they were a neighbor growing up in Bellflower CA.
Unfortunately, they were bought up by Smuckers who couldn’t stand the competition, and promptly cancelled them.
Upgrades are supposed to improve life yet I find many alleged upgrades simply do not meet that goal. As an example, look at a lot of electronic crap in cars today including electrical interface between the gas pedal and breaks and their mechanical parts with the electrical system. It simply is not needed at all. In fact, it makes it worse if there is an electrical malfunction.
Fred, we have marmelade in the us but the English style is much better. we usually have home made blueberry or strawberry jam or preserves or jelly with our toast and such.
JQ
We’ve a small cottage in BC with a garden full of bush fruit – raspberry, currant ( red, white and black), fruit trees ( apple, pear, plum, cherry, sour cherry and apricot), and we pick wild Saskatoon berries and chokecherries. My wife makes about 100 mason jars of jam and jelly every year and we eat maybe 12. The rest go to family and friends and their consensus is that the best in order are plum (a German recipe Pflaumenmus), black currant and chokecherry.
We buy the marmalade for a change of pace.
I was in England for a period of about 5 weeks over 15 years ago, to include over the July 4th holiday. In order to indulge my American appetites, I found a nice restaurant near my lodging that featured “gourmet” burgers. After nearly an hour wait in a nearly empty restaurant (should’ve been a clue), the tedium of which was only broken by a tepid glass of Coke, my burger finally arrived. It had been cooked well done to the point of turning gray, then coated in a thick layer of what I later learned was black currant jam. So, while the Brits apparently DO know their jams and marmalades, they clearly DO NOT know that they shouldn’t be put on burgers. Then again, this was in Birmingham, so maybe that’s an excuse.
brakes!!!
As Latigo noted, Kim, only 130,000? My “new” car (after the deer totaled the old one) has 150,000, with a Hemi that I promise I will do my best to keep choking the planet for the next 150,000.
Long time lurker, possibly first comment (hey, memory isn’t what it used to be…) This laptop on which I type is 9 years old, and printer is at least 5 (though I had to update it so that it would work with Wifi)… car died in a tragic accident a year ago, DVD’s are fine (and I have a trunk full of VHS and several tape players, though I’m not sure if any of them work), I do keep mostly dead tree, but kindle is fine IMHO.
Oh, and the 1911 and the butter-fried eggs probably have unwritten-but-still-enforcable guarantees to keep you alive for quite some time.
Don’t worry about butter-fried eggs or even a Full English breakfast.
As a wizened old man once told me, “Eat what you want and die like a man.”
I don’t like tofu and vegan nonsense. WHy would I want to live ten more years to eat that rubbish?