handwriting – The Hermits' Rest

What is one thing you can’t live without?

If I were younger, I’d say I couldn’t live without my phone. But Boomer Lady that I am, I assert that I can’t live without writing implements and paper. Sure, that may look like two things to you, but in my lexicon, “pen and paper” is a collective noun. Don’t argue with my brain. It’s getting old, too.

I especially like grid paper. Ooh. Forget that phone and random passport! (Photo from Pexels)

Ever since I figured out how to write and ditched giant pencils and oddly lined paper (which smelled very good). I owned lots and lots of paper and wrote many, many words on most of them (some were used to draw horses, trees, flowers, and cars).

I just love to write and always have. Nothing made me happier than an essay test or term paper assignment. I could write! Any subject would do! And I always journaled, wrote stories, and passed long notes among friends in school.

I remember my sixth-grade teacher confiscated a many-part note between me and John Zapp. She stifled a laugh when she realized we were writing about remote-control aircraft, not “do you like me, yes or no.” He and I spent the next year, along with other odd little gifted children, writing a newsletter for the seventh-grade class. Bonus: we got to run the machine that printed the purple ink that smelled so good. Mimeo machine?

Just ask Anita what we did in high school. We wrote stuff. Stories, multi-part humor notes, very long book reports, etc. I regret that I couldn’t be in journalism class because I had to sing all the time. A surprising number of those who were in that class ended up teachers, journalists, and the like.

Well, I didn’t know where that story was going. But anyway, I have been writing my whole life in all my jobs, and reluctantly switched to keyboards when I realized I typed faster than I wrote by hand. But in addition to my obsession with blogging, I still write by hand in my sticker-filled journals, take notes by hand in meetings, and have a huge collection of pens (between me and Kathleen, we could run a pen shop in our house).

I need my writing tools.

No excitement here at home today. It rained, and I discovered the newly spread dirt surrounding the house is very sticky. The clay is now on top. But the rainwater tanks are collecting away, which is exciting to me. Of course, I saw and heard birds today. All the sparrows are here!

I kept making bookmarks today. The kit makes a LOT of them. I’ll have holiday gifts for everyone at this rate. And who wouldn’t want an extremely sparkly bookmark??

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

Now, y’all may be surprised by my answer to this question, given that I have made my career in online activities and teaching folks about software. I made websites when there were no images in them, after all (1993).

First, I’d still be outside a very often, hiking, playing with horses and dogs, and observing plants, birds and other wildlife.

You can see my house way down this hill.

Second, I’d still be knitting, crocheting, doing needlepoint and all that. I’d just have books to learn from and go to the library a lot, just like I did in the blissful 70s and 80s.

I think I’d do many of the same things in person that I now do online. I’m a writer, so nothing will stop me from writing. I used to be a great typist, too. I typed a book on Catalan using three different IBM Selectric type balls, which you young folks have never even heard of, probably. I also have excellent handwriting in cursive, that ancient indecipherable script.

I could also still teach adults. I guess I’d teach at a community college or vocational school. From books. Books are good.

Book I’m reading. I prefer real books, but use the Kindle when traveling. I’m not an auditory learner by preference, so I’m not as fond of listening to them.

I’d create communities, too, just like I used to do with email groups and chat software, but (gasp) in person. I do that now, anyway, or try to. I love being with like-minded people to learn and support each other. Who needs Zoom?

But mostly I’d wander around listening to birds and watching butterflies, just like Snow White or whoever it was that had all the forest creatures flocking around her in a cartoon. Ah, it was Sleeping Beauty.

I think I’d be very happy. I was certainly happy outdoors among nature today. It rained 1.5” overnight, so all the living beings were happy. I even recorded two new birds on the Merlin app, a gray catbird and house wren (both birds I’ve seen before but never recorded). And it was only up to 84° today!

I didn’t hear these vultures, but I saw them, along with a crested caracara and a red-shouldered hawk.

The only sad part was finding a beautiful leopard frog that had gotten caught in the shredder last night when all the front field got all smooth and pretty. But that means there are probably more of these beauties!