Wednesday, June 06, 2012

On Blue Tooth and Blue Notes




Daughter (who lives 3000k away) and I have long conversations on the phone, our record is 6 hours. Yet to be broken. It will, I've no doubt.

A few months ago I purchased a blue tooth headset for my landline. Mein Gott, what a liberator that's been. I am no longer chained to a handset or a computer. I make meals, wander about in the garden, have a coffee with her, even get some work done. Like today. I needed to make 10 CDs for the cast and crew of the play and I did this while chatting with her. I bought her a blue tooth for her birthday. She took a bit of convincing but now she is thrilled. Today we purged her closet while chatting, reminiscing about our race running days together (she still had the race t-shirts, I tossed mine a long time ago). We talked about the sweaters we had knit for each other and how sad it is when one no longer wears them and has to make a decision before Goodwilling. I suggested photographing these handknit beauties. I've done that. None of us want a museum of old clothes and shoes and christening robes and wedding dresses or could I be wrong?

She said this is why people move, so they can store their history. I said this is why I'm so awful with empty rooms, I am compelled to fill them. I feel we are almost physically together during these long conversations.

And Blue Notes.

I watched Daughter do this a few years ago and found it to be a satisfying side effect to my compulsive book reading.

(Quote recently seen about book readers such as myself: I read so much my bookmarks are smaller books. Yeah.)

Like her, I now make little notes of passages I like. And I don't limit myself to books.

For stressful days:

My eyeballs aren't playing as a team. Dooce Blog.

On describing a hangover:

His head was filled with exploding drums of used motor oil. P239 - Good to a Fault.
A description of a disconnected woman:

A strange dim woman, like a flashlight with the batteries run down. P 301 - Good to a Fault
.

On London:

Black taxis soughed through the skin of recently fallen rain. P263 - Mistaken.

On a fruitless conversation:

Monosyllables were planted like bollards closing every avenue. - The Transit of Venus.

On love:

The tragedy is not that love doesn't last. The tragedy is the love that lasts. - The Transit of Venus.

Such bon mots can't be found on teevee or in the movies. This is why I read. And savour such phrasing. Again and again.

14 comments:

  1. You're right about the love that lasts. It can last until the day you die, even if the object of your love is no longer around. It's the everlasting memories that you live with and that keep you melancholy forever. You will never love anyone else that much. It spoils you for whatever might come after.

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  2. Gee Irene, soul sister, you nailed that for me. Have you ever listened to Diana Krall's "Case of You" by Joni Mitchell? Been there.

    I don't agree with the "spoiling", I think "changed" would be more me.

    XO
    WWW

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  3. I have pages of quotes and really must sort them a little more. I think you feature in there somewhere!

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  4. Great quotes. First time I heard about bluetooth for landlines. I investigated and find that they are yet to be launched in India. Sad.

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  5. Can't add much except amazement re long phone calls, WWW. My calls these days relate to either dentist, medical or bank matters, and they happen only a few times annually. I'm a telephone hermit.
    ;-)

    I do like a good quote though - enjoyed your selection. when I read more I enjoyed Elizabeth bowen's elegant style. I found this good quote of hers online

    “I swear that each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant - impossible socially, but full-scale - and that it's the knockings and batterings we sometimes hear in each other that keeps our intercourse from utter banaility.”

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  6. When I asked in the store, R, for one, they denied carrying them and then I spotted it on a shelf behind glass doors.
    "Isn't that a bluetooth?" I asked.
    "No." said the surly kindergarten clerk to the elder.
    "Can I look?"
    He tosses it to me.
    "This is a landline bluetooth!" sez I excitedly.
    "Whatever!"
    Customer service.
    Maybe you will spot one too, R!
    XO
    WWW

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  7. T:
    Oh I love Bowen, and that is one fabulous quote!
    XO
    WWW

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  8. Bluetooth for landlines -- I'll have to check since I keep mine and use my cell mostly for texting, or calls away from home.

    My books are filled with colorful post-it strips, or whatever paper strips I have, wherever I happened to be reading, when words resonate. Maybe I'll switch to a little pocket notebook to write them down. What is it about wanting to "save" all these words? Too bad I simply can't remember them all. What if I get an e-book -- will it have a place to capture those sentences I want?

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  9. Not wanting to rain on your parade but in the spirit of trying hard to keep all the good brains that are in the world (yours definitely qualifies and there are so few of us left LOL :D)healthy...I am going to assume you already know about possible risks associated with cell phone usage near brains (essentially microwave energy) and blue tooth is even closer to brain as it is inserted in the ear canal. I love beauty and your brain is beautiful I really worry about 6 hours (or more as you are sure that you will break that record)!

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  10. A six hour phone conversation? Such stamina. I couldn't possibly last out that long. I'd be flat-out with exhaustion after an hour.

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  11. Joared:
    Being UnKindled myself I'm not sure about the note capability, it would be a good feature. I do review the luscious lines I carefully copy from time to time and find them inspiring.
    XO
    WWW

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  12. Anon:
    I take your concern to heart. As I am also on hub here for internet so I am exposed so much. As we all are. And the unknowns too, like living near hydro stations and even wires.
    Apart from unplugging from the world as some have, I don't know what the solution is.
    Tin foil hats? (not a joke)
    XO
    WWW

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  13. Nick, Nick:
    It is the stimulus of the conversation. The content. There is nothing blah blah about it. I've had dinner parties that lasted 8+hours and bed talk that went for 14.
    Maybe it's the Irish in me???
    XO
    WWW

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