• Aboot:

Epiphabets

~ My.Daily.Distraction

Epiphabets

Category Archives: Technology

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 39: Counting The Herbies

27 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Automobiles, Automotive, Computers, Education, Entertainment, Family, Fitness, Mathematics, sociology, Stories, Technology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adventure, Aunts, Automobiles, blogs, Computers, Counting, Cousins, Disney, Fairfax, Family, Fitness, Games, Herbie, Highways, Math, Movies, Technology, The Love Bug, Uncles, Virginia, Volkswagen, VW, Washington DC, Writing

I wonder if young people today ever consider how their parents and grandparents survived without iPhones, video-games, iPads, computers, and other hand held gaming devices?

I am happy to report to them that not only did we survive but we survived happily, and with many fond memories.

In fact, I feel saddened by the loss of interaction between young people, children, and adults because of all the new gadgets available today.

First of all, I was absolutely and unequivocally blessed with the best Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents.

It is only because of them and their generous and loving nature that I was able to see just about every single Disney movie along with all the other blockbuster hits made for children and teenagers on the wide screen during the 1960s and 1970s.

However, there was one movie that our family always referred to with love and reverence.

The movie that I am referring to is:

“The Love Bug.”

Our entire family loved this movie so much that we invented a game in this movie’s honour which quickly became a favorite past-time for many years.

This game was called:

‘Counting The Herbies,’

This game was always best played at my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Fairfax Virginia. Down the street from their house was a ravine which overlooked one of the busiest highways in the state. I will guess that this is because we were only twenty minutes outside of Washington DC.

Hence, the heavy traffic.

On a nice afternoon, usually after lunch it would be suggested that we all go for a walk down the street and…

‘Count The Herbie’s’.

For this walk we were usually accompanied by either a parent or a grandparent.

My fondest recollections however, are those which included my grandfather.

With his cane in hand he would stroll down the block with no less than three grandchildren in tow and sometimes as many as six.

And then the counting would commence.

One, two, three, four, five Herbies…

Each of us would pipe up in turn as they came into view.

It wasn’t always that easy when the traffic was fast and heavy. Sometimes it could even get a bit tedious if traffic was intermittent and sparse.

But one thing was for sure….

There were lots and lots of Volkswagen autos out on the roads. In those days, these cars were very popular as well as economical.

And so we would count till we had reached one hundred Herbies.

Then, highly amused and pleased with ourselves we would head back to my Aunt’s and Uncle’s house where we would feast on Ho-Ho’s and Hawaiian Punch.

Life was very good then.

We got our exercise, a family outing, practiced our math and observational skills and interacted as a loving family.

Now tell me, what software app can do that?

My.Daily.Diversion ~ Post 7: Ugly Earbuds

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Apple Products, Entertainment, Technology, Television

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Apple, BBC, Car Races, Cars, Ear Buds, Ear Phones, Muscle Cars, Music, Race, Top Gear, WalkMan

One of our families favourite television shows is BBC’s Top Gear.

The greatest of this show’s features are when the three hosts are subjected to gruelling car races through dense jungles, unforgiving deserts and all other sorts of incredibly difficult terrain.

If anyone’s car is breaks down and is thus rendered useless, they are automatically defaulted to drive the…

‘Car of Shame…’

A car so disgusting and awful that no one would want to be seen near it let alone drive it.

So, where am I going with this, you might be asking yourself?

Only that this gave my husband the wonderful idea to try the same ploy on his own family.

This idea came to him after experiencing frustration whenever he went to his desk drawer to retrieve his apple ear buds.

Of course, they were never there.

They were just too handy for the rest of the family whenever someone broke or could not find their own apple earbuds.

So what did he do?

He bought a pair of the ugliest ear buds he could find.

The earbuds had what looked like bright neon yellow gum pieces glued to them.

If you were to insert them into your ears, you would look like you had gum sticking out of them.

Embarrassing to say the least.

And that is why his plan was so brilliant:

Because they continue to sit brand new and unused to this very day.

And of course he’s giddy with delight that he’s never had to buy another pair of Apple ear buds again.

There have been times when out of desperation, we open the dreaded desk drawer to reconsider using them, but inevitably we close the drawer with the earbuds still inside.

Instead, we would find ourselves at the computer store picking up yet another pair of Apple ear buds.

The shame of others seeing you listening to your tunes with gum bright neon yellow pieces of gum sticking out of your ears is just not worth it.

Yes, they are that ugly.

End of story.

Thanks for reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tweet

Archives

  • August 2019 (2)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (7)
  • May 2019 (4)
  • June 2018 (3)
  • May 2018 (4)
  • January 2018 (6)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (6)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • August 2015 (4)
  • July 2015 (10)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (31)
  • February 2015 (28)
  • January 2015 (30)
  • December 2014 (29)
  • November 2014 (44)
  • October 2014 (24)
  • September 2014 (23)
  • August 2014 (31)
  • July 2014 (33)
  • June 2014 (28)
  • February 2014 (1)
  • November 2013 (9)
  • October 2013 (3)

Blog at WordPress.com.