Happy Birthday Gizmo

The move started last Thursday evening and ended this last Monday afternoon around 12:30 pm. We moved 6 loads of boxes and small odds and ends in our Dodge Durango between Goose Creek SC and Johns Island. Most of the driving and loading was done in a slow wet drizzle which I am sure helped to bring on the cold that I am still fighting with. Katy came down with some sort of stomach bug that climaxed to its full potential sometime Tuesday which is when I wound up driving her back to North Charleston to Health First. Come to find out I could have taken her over to Doctors Care on Sam Rittenburg and Savannah Hwy. That is what happens when you move to a different town you have to figure everything out again. I guess in the heat of the moment I opted to take her where I felt that she would get the best care and the most expediently without having to go through the insurance discovery madness.
The month of May is birthday madness at our household because everyone other than me has a birthday. Not only that but Katy and I celebrate our wedding anniversary in May. As of this May Katy and I celebrated 19 years of marriage adventures. As my pastor says, she is a saint. I would not have tolerated me for 1 year much less 19 years. Ok, maybe I am being too rough on myself but let’s just say Katy is the blessing in this marriage.
We have only been in the house now for less than 3 days but I think we are really going to enjoy this neighborhood. I spent several hours washing my SUV since it was horribly gross from the move and I noticed that several of our adjoining neighbors got off of work, came home and then stood around talking to one another in each other’s yards. It is nice to see neighbors actually talking to one another. That also means that people know who is supposed to be on that street and who does not. From what I can tell it is very quiet in the neighborhood. It has been nice to sit out on the front lawn and not hear the rush of traffic or the screaming of kids from all directions. Not only that but we will not miss the noises that came from the townhome directly above us.
In the last year or so I have been wandered deeper and deeper into social networking online and offline. I probably have spent more energy online than offline but I have forced myself to attend several Lowcountry blogger meetups in the Charleston area. I am not much of a social butterfly and so it is difficult for me to be in a group of people and find a way to break the ice with them. I guess that it just takes some time. One of my friends who has gone to one meetup told me that I needed to remember that Katy and I are older than most of the meetup attendees. Ok, so Katy and I are a bit older. Does that mean that we do not have something to offer? I know how to walk up to a table full of folks I really do not know and listen to their conversation. The only problem with that is I feel uncomfortable doing that. We have been able to make a connection with three or four folks but for the most part I get this feeling of not belonging. I find myself wishing that the organizers of these meetups would think of a way to help people to “break the ice” with everyone in the group and not just the people that they have already made friends with.
I understand that not everyone is going to like everyone nor is everyone going to have something in common with everyone. I was hoping that social networking online would also make it possible to make those kinds of connections with new people in the real world. Twitter, Plurk, blogs, Facebook, Myspace are all good media access points that enable us to connect in the virtual world. The only problem with the virtual world is that it can be difficult to communicate feelings and it can also become very impersonal. Just today I asked a friend of mine if she would mind calling my wife on the phone and wish her a happy birthday. Her response, “is she online so I can send her an e-mail”. My thought was that sending an e-mail to wish someone you know locally to wish them a happy birthday is sort of impersonal. Maybe that is what technology is doing to us, driving us more inward than outward. We are happy to know that other humans exist and we want to experience their connectedness to a certain degree but we really don’t want to invest too much personal energy to be near them.
This evening I have plans for Katy and I to go out and celebrate her birthday at California Dreaming in West Ashley. Katy turns the big 50 today and I want her to celebrate this special day and know she is loved and appreciated.









James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net