Great Day, A New Word and a Weird Discovery

Yesterday was a great day. Ken and I discovered the basketball court. We went for a walk, him in his electric wheelchair and me beside. We had heard there was a basketball court in the apartment complex. So we loaded up and headed out.  45 minutes later we found it. It is a biiiiiiig apartment complex. Some kids were playing basketball so we watched for a few minutes then headed home.
We walked the direct route through the parking areas to find the basketball court.
Ken wanted to walk back through the apartment itself. We did. We got lost and had to have some kids lead us back. There are miles of wandering, twisting and turning paths. However, About an hour later we got home. I roasted some boneless ribs with potatoes for supper.
It was a good day.
Yes, that is a good day for us. Our life is slow and probably considered boring, but that was a good day.
That evening I looked for something to blog about.
I discovered a new word.
Remember the hoopla about the dead birds and fish around the world? Well it has a name to designate it.
                   AFLOCKALYPSE
There has been deaths of fish, birds, insects, animals all over the world. And as I touched on in an earlier blog, it has happened again and again. It's just that we are more connected than ever before with cell phones, twitter, ad nauseum to the point that nothing happens without everybody and their duck knows about it.

Kenneth and I like watching Fox news. This morning a comment made that made me crinkle my brow and ponder. The head of Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical break. The news commentator asked the question "Why the secret?" referring to the fact that Mr. Jobs has not disclosed the why of his medical leave.
My question is WHY SHOULD HE? Have we completely forgotten the idea of privacy?
IT IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS WHY.
But again, we are connected to everyone around the world with our gadgets and whiz-bangs so that everyone knows everything. Which leads us back to Aflockalypse.

When we lived in Desert Center, population 150, there was a homily. If  you wanted to start a rumor simply whisper it in the store, McGoo's, and it will meet you in the cafe 5 miles away when you get there 5 minutes later. It was even worse than that. We have lived at Desert Center off and on for the last 30 years. The ranch my aunt lives on is 160 acres and has been in the family since 1920 when my grandmother purchased it. So it is kind of a refuge for the family. We moved there from Fort Worth some 15 years ago. We drove there with our dog and our two teenage sons. Our car broke down several times so we were delayed in arriving. When we finally arrived, a man I never met came up to the car in the gas station and said:

"You're Charlene Carney's niece aren't you? You're late. You were supposed to be here a week ago."

We had not called, written or what-not yet the whole town knew we were coming and that we were late.

With all the twitter, cell phone, computer, email, website, communication out there, the whole world is becoming like Desert Center. Everyone knows everyone's business. It may be a good thing in some ways, but in others it causes aflockalypses. Maybe we should call it -- Nyah, I don't have a coined word for it.

The weird discovery is a prehistoric bird that clubbed its rivals and its prey. I discovered the information while trying to find out about the aflockalypse.

According to Discovery.com
A flightless Jamaican ibis bird evolved wings that functioned like a club or flail.



Researchers believe the birds swung their club-like "weapons" during fights with predators or over territory.


Some birds also use their wings as weapons, but no other known vertebrate fought like this extinct Jamaican bird did.

You can find the full article here.

Oh, and I got about 1,000 words written on my WIP Lion of Dyad.
It was a great day.
Charlene