phones – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

October 8, 2020

Pud (DOG EAR)

ack when I worked as a summer hire for the Navy in Cubi Point, Philippines, Chief Mullens would always yell “Don’t just stand there with your pud in your hands!” The things you carry forward in life. So now, fifty years later, I’m in a world we could have scarcely imagined. We have/had space shuttles (I even worked on them), computers beyond imagination, an ability to travel the globe and a pandemic that came, in part, because of that. And now I’m an old guy, retired, and I’m out riding my thirty-mile ride. Everyone I pass on the trail, baby-pushers, […]

May 6, 2021

An open mind (DOG EAR)

y Grande Loop (for my bicycle) is to ride to the Sunrail station and roll north to Longwood. From there, it’s a bike-mile to the Seminole Trail. I can shoot east to Oviedo, catch the Cady Way Trail which brings me back home at just a shade under 30 miles. It’s possibly my favorite local ride. I don’t ride with music and I certainly don’t answer my phone (making me somewhat of a minority on the trail). Old people riding their trikes with angry talk radio spewing. Joggers with earbuds focused on their motivational podcasts. People chatting on phones or […]

July 27, 2023

Missed Communications (DOG EAR)

hen I was a young lad of twenty or so, I was in a long-distance (i.e. stupid) relationship. To talk to my west coast girl, I had to wait until 11pm Sunday night (8pm her time) to afford the crippling long distance changes. Turns out, in retrospect, I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. Oh well. But what bugs me is the world we live in now. People have phones that can instantly, cheaply connect you with anyone around the planet. Often in coffee shops, I’ll hear young people taking call after call, text after text, fully […]

August 22, 2024

Addiction (DOG EAR)

ou know, I think the thing about drunks and drug addicts is when you see them in their ragged states, hanging on at the margins of society. The sorrow from this comes from thinking about the lost potential – here was a person who fell through the cracks, who might have gone on to create great art, great items, great friendship and great loves, who, because of a weakness for drink or drugs, lost this chance. I think this every day while in the downtown coffee shop and watching the baristas take pity on the homeless who wander in, giving […]