A little rant

I realize we live in a time of gadgets and entertainment where we're constantly watching or listening to something. I find it hard to leave the radio off when I'm driving (unless the kids have provided more noise than I can handle). I flip my phone open several times a day and check Facebook, news, and email. Music plays in stores, and restaurants, billboards line the highways, TV's are in most waiting rooms. One restaurant we go to occasionally is a sports-bar atmosphere and there are TV's everywhere. You can watch 4 different sports on 4 different screens without leaving your seat, or even so much as turning your head. And this is true for each table. The walls are lined with flat-screens all the way around the top of the wall. It is a little much for me.  And in case you've had too much beer and have to make a run to the restroom, there's even an older model TV in there to keep tabs on at least one game while you're waiting in line. Well, okay the one in the ladies' room was unplugged, probably by a woman like me, but I can't speak for the one in the men's room.

Do we need TV's in Walmart? Is it not enough to just shop? Must we hear Walmart ads played on a 5 minute cycle, so by the time we're done shopping we've heard the same commercials more than we can count? Doctor's offices are boring. But adding a TV  in the corner with uninteresting slide shows about medication doesn't help pass the time. And the other TV in the opposite corner plays cartoons, but the volume is all the way down. That's probably a plus. Apparently magazines aren't sufficient entertainment anymore.

 All of these things show our addiction to noise and images even when we don't care about what is on, but have we become so incapable of dealing with four minutes of relative quietness that we now need Gas Station TV Network?! Murphy USA gas station at our local Walmart feels the need to subject  me to little facts about race car drivers, national weather reports, and demonstrations of how Adatech can do wonders to my engine, taking all the enjoyment out of standing at the pump feeling the breeze blow (it's always blowing on that little hillside; don't know why). A few years ago, the kids could be wailing in the car, asking for things through the glass, tattling on the sibling who touched them. I used to smile and wave at them from my quiet spot by the pump, but now I have the grating noise of GSNTV playing behind me. It's tempting just to get back in the van.

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A couple of kid sayings:
Micah thinks the name of  the card game we played is Crazy Apes (crazy eights).

We were listening to some songs on Pandora  while folding clothes the other day. I heard Cassie singing
"Give-it-away, it's hers, give-it-away it's hers" and thought she was making a song up about clothes. Then I realized she thought she was singing along with the song that was playing "Even when it's hard, even when it hurts".