Woody & My IBF

There are some things I just plain miss about the pre-Google world. I was admiring the butterfly prints on my B&B wall, and I could not remember the word for the study of butterflies. I think is lepeteropteris or something, but probably not. I would ask my mother if she were still alive. My mother knew everything. The reason she knew everything is that she learned it. She didn't have to look stuff up all the time, although she did sometimes, in our big encyclopedia, or if that failed, the library. Now you just Google. I Google a lot because there are a lot of things I'd like to know something about. I will probably forget it and Google it again. Or add it to my bookmarks and then forget I did that and then Google it again and bookmark that, and so on and so on until my bookmark list is about 250 lines long and then I can find absolutely nothing. I think it's a good idea to talk to other people about stuff.

I am also losing my ability to spell. I used to be a really good speller, but since anything on the computer spell checks itself, I don't even bother. Pretty soon, the computer spells for me and I can free up the spelling part of my brain for something else. Like a list of the 50 funniest signs I have seen on the road. Oops. I put those in my little notebook in my purse, and then type them on a sticky on my Macbook and then cut and paste when I need to. The information is completely purged from the old grey matter. I wonder what is happening to all that unused space freed up from not spelling and not remembering the term for the study of butterflies and not creating interesting lists? I don't feel any smarter.

Now for GPS. You may recall that I travel using paper maps and directions people give me. I am the absolute best at knowing where I am and where I am going. At least I used to be. I've been using the GPS for so long that I've lost the ability to go four blocks without remembering how to get back. Walking. I have done that several times in the past few days, much to my horror. I have been calling various people for various tasks in my maintenance activities for today. I ask for directions. They give me an address. No, how do you get there? They give me the address again. Look, I don't know where that is and how to get there. Lady, you need a GPS. I probably do, now that I've lost my inner compass. As long as I can keep the thing charged (remember, Woody has no useful cigarette lighter), I have freed up some more brain space. How come I'm getting dumber?

BTW, I looked it up. It is lepidopterology. Now I can forget that and free up some more brain space. Wait. No can do. Spell check doesn't believe it's a word. And you know what? If I didn't know the word "phrenology" I wouldn't have been able to search for the nice image in this post. And that isn't even an SAT word. Nice to know my brain is good for something.