The technology available today is really rocket science when compared to what was available to us back in those earlier years. We thought the telephone was revolutionary, and it was in its own way. We no longer had to yell at our neighbors across the fence line. We could dial them up and run the gauntlet of the party line to get our message across.Ê

My grandfather told me about having to drive the team of horses seven miles to Hinton to send a telegraph message. He thought that was miraculous. To him, the things a telephone could do were almost unbelievable.Ê What would he have thought about the smart phone?Ê

I'm a relative dunce when it comes to the technology that is available to us today. Even so, I've learned not to be afraid of the computer and I use it daily in my work. I knowÊthat myÊcomputer can catch a "virus" andÊI can lose a month's or a year's worth of work in an eye blink ifÊI'm not careful. I've learned how to take a picture with my smart phone and instantly send it to my relatives and friends. No wonder Kodak is biting the dust! Film has become a thing of the past.Ê

There are instant answers available on my smart phone. Questions come up at the cafe coffee counter almost everyday that would have at one time become objects of argument. When one of these questions comes up now, all I have to do is pull out my smart phone and defuse the tense situation. I've looked up the price of feeder calves, the price of raw milk, how many bridges span the Mississippi and how far it is to Mesquite, Texas.Ê I look on this smart phone as a real pacifier to my fellow coffee slurpers. They leave the cafe happy instead of mad. That's a real plus of the technological age.Ê

New farm machinery is totally saturated with technology. Tractors now talk back to their drivers and combines keep track of almost every kernel of corn or grain of wheat. Farmers now sit in the operator's seat and read the latest crop report or how much the local elevator is paying for corn. Current farm technology is a far cry from that steel tractor seat and power steering-less beast I used to herd across the prairie.Ê

And, I could have used my smart phone on that day I was plowing my uncle's Hell's Half Acre. A rooster pheasant ran across my path and distracted me just long enough for me to forget to lift the plow out of the soil before I hit the virgin prairie. Once I went too far, the plow instantly sunk below the surface to its frame, killing the tractor engine and the battery on the tractor was dead.Ê We used to start that tractor by rolling it down a hill.Ê There I sat, stuck and a long way from home.

With a smart phone I could have easily called my uncle and had him come to my rescue. Instead, I had to walk two miles back to the farm to gain his assistance and understanding. I got a good dose of both. It would have been easier with a smart phone, but not less painless.

See you next time. Okay?