You know you’re getting old when…I’m sure every person on the planet has a completely different way to fill in the remaining blanks. It’s hard to say exactly when it hits, but when it does, it smacks you in the face like a flying pair of suspenders. I recently got excited about something I never thought I would really care about – the price of gas.
When I was younger, I remember my parents talking about the increase or decrease in gas prices and I thought, “big whoop.” Then I eventually bought my own car and started making monthly payments and filling her with the liquid stuff every week. Ouch! A couple weeks ago, Parish and I headed to the gas station by our apartment. I looked at the sign and said; “I know we can get it cheaper at Krogers.” Had I really started paying attention to the price of gas? Didn’t I have more important things to do – such as get my hair done, call my friends and gossip about the latest tabloid rumor? Nope, this is reality and I was paying attention to money saving tips at the tank.
We made the extra half-mile drive to Krogers and actually saved an additional 10 cents per gallon. “We saved almost 18 cents by coming here!” I shouted from the passenger seat. “How cool is that?” I asked my husband, who is always a gentleman and pumps the gas. I jerked my head back from the window and sighed. That’s when it hit me – I’m getting old. Now I understood all of my parent’s long-winded speeches about gas and the price of oil and yada yada.
Parish and I always say that we have “old souls,” meaning, sometimes we feel like we don’t fit in with today’s generation. We are both into things of a another era – The Temptations, watching sitcoms with real actors, reading newspapers, playing dominoes, underwater basket-weaving and the like. It is for that reason and 1,000 others that we make a good match. Of course, we also enjoy our share of gadgets that have wildly progressed from the late ’80s such as the personal computer, technology, all the iStuff we occupy our time with and all the green initiatives.
Our old souls were shocked during a recent visit to Best Buy. Parish likes to frequent the technology super store every couple of weeks to see what is new and marvel at the larger-than-life TV screens. During this recent trip we wandered into the home appliance department, even though we don’t have a home (yet), and were attracted to one appliance in particular – a refrigerator with Wifi capabilities. No joke – the Samsung fridge had a touch screen on the front that allows the user to access their Twitter feed, check the weather, find a recipe through Epicurious.com and look at pictures on Picasa.
And for only $3,499, the smart fridge can go home with you today. A friendly, blue-shirted employee approached us as we were looking at this fridge. “I won one of these, but because I don’t have a house, I gave it my parents,” she said moments after walking up to us. Giving your mom and dad a smart fridge? Surely that moved you up on the favorite kid list.
Honestly, I think that is the only way I would ever own one of those. Someone would have to give it to me as a gift or I will have to save up the money to buy it and by then, I would be too old to use it.