Among Friends

[MyShadowLove]

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@catwhisperer wrote:

@house_cat ....I apologize if I am going off topic here, but in response to your last post, I don't understand why some people don't want to talk anymore, they would rather text.

@catwhisperer ...I just quoted that part of your post that I wanted to respond to...I hear what you are saying...This is a major pet peeve of mine.

I have an older sister who expects to carry on lengthy  conversations by texting, rather than talking on the phone...I try to tell her that texting is for short messages...not lengthy conversations...but she still continues to text...I find it annoying...So I finally just told her that it is more comfortable for me to be carrying on a conversation by phone...I don't want my head buried into an app and texting for periods of time...It is more relaxing just sitting back and talking on the phone.

It works for a while and then she just starts texting away again...LOL

My immediate family members and I are located in different States and we have been unable to see each other...So,  especially during this pandemic, I need to hear their voices and have that special connection....It is more comforting for me...Texting just doesn't do it for me.

[hckynut]

@house_cat 

"I don't know how we functioned before smart phones and texts".

Although we did not always have one, I was born in '39, and I can't remember a time when there was not the invention called a telephone.

The1st one I remember we had,  there was what was called a "party line". This mean we had to share our line with someone else. Those that could afford it could have a single line of their own. There also was a plan similar toTracfone. It was named "40 call". It was cheaper, but you were limited to making only 40 outgoing calls a month.

I remember pay phone booths on the streets in our City. Even had one 2 blocks from our Public Housing Projects apartment. Back then a call was $.05 and no time limit on your call.

I don't recall ever needing to know news and weather every minute of the day. My mother worked 6 days, 2 of which were 830pmm. She had no way to keep tabs on us every hour of the day, and she had no reason to feel it necessary. We were where she told us to be at specific times of every day.

Did she worry about us? I am sure she did, but she very seldom talked with us about it. My presumption is that is because she trusted us.

The only reason I bought my1sttTracFonee was because of the ice rinks per hour rental fee. They had too many heated discussions with hockey and figure skating coaches over "my watch says this/your clock says that/ we have 3 more minutes left/ no, your hour is up". Thus they switched to "cell phone time", which solved the issues. Running my hockey league I needed "that specific time" to monitor each of our games".

Until that year, I am guessing about 2009, I never owned a cell phone, and my life functioned perfectly well. To me right now having closed my hockey league after 52 years, i can't even remember the last time i even turned on my latest smart(?) cell phone.

That is how my family got along, and I had only 1 parent which was my mother. Times have changed and many things that now fall into the "essential" category to some, are still just "things" that are nothing more than another option in life.

@house_cat   You asked and for you I was more than happy to reply. =^..^=

hckynut

[hckynut]

@catwhisperer 

I don't text and I have no intention of doing so. "Maybe it's an age thing"? I will go so far as to say, yes it is an age thing. Over the last 20 years I have sat up to hours in many a waiting room. What do I see mostly from people that are AARP eligible? Reading a book/talking with who brought them/talking with other patients. Texting? Very seldom.

Looking at younger people there is where I see the fingers and thumbs working overtime. Head down and probably impervious to even the room being on fire. Texting/playing games, beats me, but the only thing present in that waiting room is their physical body. Most of course, are not the patient.

Ran my adult hockey well into the texting age. Players in the locker rooms pre and post games?  The ones with their face starring at a phone?  Not the ones AARP eligible.  Like anything there are exceptions, but speaking percentage wise of the age of those that see the floor/ground/feet most often. Read my above.

And as I did with @house_cat , I will leave you with the same  =^..^=

hckynut

[Gorgf]

I am half extrovert and half introvert. I believe the term is ambivert.  I have taken Meyers Briggs Personality profile many times. There is no right or wrong catagory we are just different and need to adjust ourselves working and living with others who may be different. I can get energized around people and sometimes need alone and quiet.

I can rise to the occasion or not depending on my mood. I miss chatting with people but get a chance every morning  with a regularly attending group at the dog park while our dogs run.  My dogs are my therapy. A big park ,so distancing is easy A couple of trips a week to the store helps and sometimes I talk and sometimes want in and out. I am not a big phone talker ,on occasion call someone. 

It could make an introverted person even more withdrawn and anxiety for a people person having limits on socializing and needing it.  From the news not a good situation for many which can be troubling with increased alcohol and drug use, depression, family violence, and sadly even suicide. Issues compounded by too much solitude, stress and  worry due to the pandemic.

[mintedrose]

When I lived in the midwest, being indoors all the time was my life. It was too cold to go out and do anything that I would enjoy. I enjoy the outdoors, nature, sun and water. But I also enjoy time to myself. 

I lived 7 years of life absolutely disliking being stuck indoors.I made it fun as much as I could but it was really getting to me. I miss socializing. I didnt know anyone there and it felt very lonely.

I was just telling someone the other day, this year the entire world is experiencing how Ive been living like for 7 years. 

[Newgate]

I too am a introvert!   So this pandemic has not bothered me as much as it has others.   But, enough is enough even for me.   I really miss the church gatherings we have always attended.

I am praying daily for a return to normal!

[hckynut]

@mintedrose 

What part of the Midwest did you live those 7 years. I live in one of the states classified as the Midwest, and have lived here all 81+ years of my life.

We have seasons of the year like most others. It gets really cold/really hot, sometimes just within hours I have experienced both. While I live outside the city limits, and have plenty of our own land, we are not in the wilderness.

Trying to understand what "too cold" to go outside and do anything means to you. Right now it is 33° here and I just came in from the outside. Spent over an hour outside earlier chopping ice in our driveway. I was actually hot after a few minutes.

"Experiencing how you been living for 7 years"!  You lost me somewhere in your post and being a Midwesterner? Don't make much sense to me if you are talking ONLY about the weather.

Wonder if you might be more specific if it is only the weather and no personal matters.

hckynut 

[jannabelle1]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that doesn't mind being at home. I'm retired, and I grew up as an only child so entertaining myself isn't foreign to me. I don't need to be around a lot of people or do a lot of socializing. Because of hubby's COPD, I take care of our  weekly grocery shopping....that's my time out of the house and it works for me.

The older I get, the more I enjoy just being in my humble little town home. I miss seeing our grandsons and their football/baseball games - that's the worst part. But I feel worse for them not being able to have the normal growing-up lives that they were used to and that they need.

[suzyQ3]

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@suzyQ3 wrote:

@house_cat, yes, but with the same caveat. I am sometimes overwhelmed when thinking of the sickness and deaths that seem to be endless (at least in California, but I'm sure elsewhere as well).

The older I get the more reclusive I have become. I've always been a comfort seeker, but nothing like now. The highlight of my day is reading in front of the fireplace with my pup. Where I used to revel in the summer season, I can't wait now for what passes as fall/winter here.

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After posting the above, I realized that I was not distinguishing between being an introvert and being someone who needs the comfort of nesting.

I am very much the latter, but in no way am I the former.

[catwhisperer]

While on my daily walk today, I met up with a introvert neighbor.

Stressed as I am, I often question my own sanity. After talking to this neighbor, I no longer question my own sanity.