So are you fully charged?
I've decided to write about a subject that really concerns us - all and not photography or travel as usual …
Went out of town for a few days - every time it gets more complicated.
At my age, I’m living in the Future, “now”, my whole world must be charged before I lock the front door!
This takes some forward planning … and probably includes you too!
Is your watch charged? Depending on which brand you use, you may or may not have a problem - iWatch lasts 2 days (if you are lucky), FitBit can last a week! Your watch has become an essential item - not because you need to know the time but because you receive messages, phonically and emails as your day progresses AND it records your level of fitness! You must to do “steps” to get health points for your medical aid company - 10000 steps a day, 3 times during any week will get you a free smoothie or cup of coffee! I’d never even heard of a smoothie until I met my first week’s goal. So the thing is do you walk? Or do you pay R35 for your smoothie or coffee? Not a big deal for most of us but a bit of a challenge for some.
A Saturday Park Run will get you 300 points and if you are lucky, you’ll do it
in 40 (ish) minutes - quicker than doing 10 000 steps which could take a
few hours.
People have become neurotic about their time pieces - imagine putting in the effort and then discovering “OMG my battery is flat!”
Take the charger for fuck’s sake!
Tangle of chargers and cables.
OCD is a term that comes to mind.
Instead of treating unfit patients, soon medical aid companies are going to have to process piles of psychiatric treatment applications. I know people who get up at 5am, go running, then to gym, then for a walk at 5pm and maybe a bit of swimming in between all this. All trying to get their heartbeat up to certain level so that they achieve their points goal - BUT, catch 22, the fitter you get, the more difficult it becomes. OCD raises it’s neurotic head.
People sit and watch TV r read a book and their watch wrist is shaking so that the machine of choice is building up “steps”.
And the rules are becoming more and more complicated. You need to be an actuary to actually analyse the system and how to do what.
Electric toothbrush lasts about a week, can’t remember when last it was plugged in?
Razor? Take the chargers!
Hey, don’t forget your phone needs a charge every day (or two if you’re lucky). Pack your phone charger! What could be worse than being out in the country in the middle of spring, plants flowering all over the place, rolling hills to explore on foot or mountain bike. Sitting on the stoop over sundowners, perfect wi-fi connectivity, your watch is dead! And no-one else has the same model so you can’t even borrow a charger and even if they do, they’re using it. That means, the walk tomorrow will get no points - what a waste of exersize! Mental break down …
By-the-way, in this Future, even mountain bikes are powered by electric motors - another charging cable to pack …, it now seems acceptable to be pushed up a hill electronically for the excitement of the the down ride. Personally, I can’t see the point of this from the health point of view, which is why you are riding a bike in the first place!
We don’t worry about anything as mundane as a torch - your phone has a built-in one - if the phone is charged that is, and chews up the battery. So let’s take a torch - no old fashion torch batteries, the unit is rechargeable - you’ll need the charger. But wait, I’m in South Africa, my torch doubles as a taser. If someone attacks me, I simply tell them to “hold on a sec, I’m just changing the switch on the back from torch to tase…”
Now here’s the thing, I so rarely charge the torch taser, it simply resides in the cubby of my car,
that a few weeks ago, I found a cable that I couldn’t identify and threw it out. Never throw away a charging cable until you are absolutely sure that you no longer own the device that it’s supposed to put some current into.
If you are like me, you won’t leave the house without a camera (or two). Each camera has a
battery with two or three back-ups (I always have a couple of spares in a pocket). But each camera has bespoke batteries, so that’s two more chargers.
Then my drone, one battery in and two spares. Each lasts about 25 minutes on a calm day.
The charger can accommodate four at a time but you are out of action if that happens.
In an emergency, the charger fits into the charging socket of your car.
The car battery … should be OK, nowadays they are sealed so you don’t have to keep topping up with distilled water, but, they pack up with little or no warning after a couple of years.
If you are younger than I am, you may well have a couple of kids tagging along - they have toys with batteries, lots of batteries that need charging, changing or replacing - one can still buy ordinary, old fashioned batteries off the shelf in hardware stores and supermarkets but then you need a back-up set because they ARE going to go flat. Then the battery cover falls off and disappears and the bloody things don’t stay in place without the cover!
My grandchildren use iPads with games loaded onto them but the games last longer than the battery - the children get frustrated because they were about to break a death record or unlock the dungeon door.
A flat iPad, it’s simply got to be your fault.
As kids, our excitement was to fight over the window seat “on the way there and the way back” or play I spy or spot the car … ho hum.
Remember stopping along the way for a picnic to stretch legs, wee in a bush, listen to the silence and breathe the country air, or popping in at a Wimpy for a burger and fries? Now you are lucky if you can get the kids out of the car - if the iPad batteries are working.
Flat batteries at this age cause temper tantrums - and screaming fits.
Now we come to your stuff - you need to take the laptop you must keep in touch. WhatsApp,
emails, FaceBook. Is the charger in your bag?
When you ”need” it you discover that you brought the charger for your previous MacBook.
The word is “incompatible…and the reaction? Your turn to have a hissy fit!
What about your own iPad, this is more important than merely keeping the kids entertained, this is YOU, it’s important, it’s your stuff, your “time out” and there’s that great book you downloaded before leaving home and this will be a perfect opportunity to read it - if the battery lasts, or you’ve brought the correct cable
Here’s a thought, battery or charger more important?
A sort of chicken and egg thing …
A question that was never asked until a couple of years ago - the holiday house we’re renting, is there Wi—Fi? Don’t want to go unless it’s fully connected. Ummm, adsl or fibre?
All well and good having batteries charged and everything up and running but we’ll use up all our data without connectivity!
I’ve been told that most of these batteries should be allowed to fully run down before being recharged and not to be disconnected until completely charged. Bloody nuisance. I’ve started carrying a cellphone charger in my bag - get eight full phone charges out of the unit.
BUT, you’ve guessed it, does it have any charge left? And this little baby takes six to eight hours of being plugged into a wall socket to become fully operational.
Personally, I find the current situation stressful (pun intended), but that’s life.
I won’t even get started on electric cars - a whole new lifestyle is approaching, in fact, has arrived!
Only problems are how far can you go and how long before you’ll need new batteries?
Here’s a thought, what if you have a Pacemaker keeping your heart pumping?
Do you realise this is run by a battery, keeping you alive, fully charged,… I believe it lasts about seven years. The doctor who put it in has retired or died, you haven’t made a note of the date on which it was installed - charging cable won’t help.
But hey, that’s life!
Perpetual motion?