By: Cathey MeyerNo New Year’s resolutions will get a commitment this new year. I have a new resolve: New Year’s Worrylutions. I thought I was at a point in my life where I just did not have to give a %&&(%$* about much of anything anymore, but as I lay me down to sleep, I find I am thinking way too deep.
My first worry is electricity. I have no clue how electricity works. I just understand when I do not pay the bill nothing works. Running out of power was never a consideration in my life advancement. I do recall the threat of no more gasoline, no more oil, and now, no more water, but electricity? Somehow those little wall plugs would always have some kind of spark traveling through them making things turn on and light up. Our building added electric car chargers in 2024. We purchased one for the price of an expensive computer just because our building manager noted we only had so many available plugs and once they were gone, it would cost a large fortune to add more power source. I ask what that meant, he just said there was no more optional available power. I had no clue power was optional. We have yet to purchase an electric car, but we have a plug . . .if electricity is available for the charge.
Worry number two is this bitcoin/cryptocurrency alternative money conversations. I understand nothing about it other than Texas is running out of electricity because someone is mining money. I thought you mined gold? If bitcoin is money, how do you get change from purchase? Last I heard, this was imaginary ‘cash’ that involved a mega password that no one ever remembers AND if it is lost, taken or stolen you just lose everything. At least with a credit card you have an outside chance of recovering something. And why does it use so much of my electricity I need for a car I do not yet own? How long will my regular Uncle Sam money be of value? I worry.
Worry number three involves all this chatter about the Chinese intercepting our phone calls and texts. I long ago gave up on the notion that we as technology dependent humans (that would include the need for even more electricity) have no expectation of privacy. I am not a TikToc’er but not because the Chinese have infiltrated every participating Toc’er, it is because I just do not do the social media thing. I have very little extra time as it is and recording bad dances and poor cooking skills to make strangers laugh is not on my to do list. My worry is my texts and phone calls are too boring for the Chinese infiltrators. Peer pressure is tough enough waiting for Ozempic prices to become affordable. The idea of foreign teenagers swiping left on my personal relationships and laughing at my dull life is heartbreaking.
The loss of electricity would certainly eliminate the worry of the Chinese spoofing me, but worry number four, as crazy as it is, still bothers me: Space junk. Even more than the junk is who has control over all the space and what are they doing about random pieces of gigantic junk falling back to Earth? I was never a comfortable flyer but never let irrational fear keep me from seeing the world. I have seen enough of the world for this lifetime and prefer to keep my feet near the ground while airplane parts decompose in midair. Not to mention being trapped in an aluminum tube with strangers–any of which will implode prior to plane parts peeling off the fuselage.
Space junk can come crashing down with no Doppler warning. I have seen this stuff flashing and burning out across the sky. At first, I thought I was witnessing shooting stars and making wishes like crazy. One evening, my partner noted news reports detailing the finding of space junk too close to home. Then you hear about folks relaxing in the Laz-y-Boys until space junk comes crashing through their rooftops. The next flash of light streaking across the sky had me in a duck and cover drill. No one needs to live life knowing Chicken Little was right.
Not the last of my worries, but the one I am hiding from is artificial intelligence. As tempted as I am to get the AI’s and/or ChatGPT’s to create column content for me, I am too close to dementia years to stop making my own brain work. Folks are letting these microchip brains take over voluntarily and giving them the power. The Alexa’s and her cousins have control of most households these days. Youngin’s have no clue how to find a radio station on a clock radio much less know what time is shown on the clock. Of course, they have no clue what a radio is either, but I digress. Here’s to a New Year—not necessarily a happy one. I need to charge my computer while the plug is hot . . .
