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Despite My Better Judgment?

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Photo credit:  Marko Pekić

Running with the pack has always been problematic for me. I’m not sure why, but even at a fairly young age, if everybody else was climbing on a particular band wagon, I shied away.  I remember that Elvis hit the scene in a big way when I was in 3rd grade.  I had never heard of Elvis, but because all my classmates were going on and on about him, I stated to all that I didn’t care for him.  I didn’t even know who he was! There are many examples of this in my life and it continues to this day as something I have to be aware of, so I don’t act on knee-jerk reactions.

It won’t surprise any of you then that I have never longed for an iPhone. From the beginning of my phone ownership, I have opted for androids, despite Child/Teenager/YA always clamoring for the latest iPhone iteration for herself.  No good reason – just a feeling that I could get along very well with a non-Apple product, thank you very much.  YA has tried to get me onto the Apple platform for years now.

Our two-year cell phone contract was up the beginning of October, so there have been LOTS of conversations about plans and phones at our house the last four weeks. We went to the kiosk last week and there was a new android that has a lot of motion-sensor technology so you don’t have to push as many buttons.  Playing with it, I felt like Tony Stark, but ultimately I probably wouldn’t use any of those functions.  I’m guessing that I only use about 25% of my phone capabilities – no need to purchase something that might just make me feel inadequate.

YA, in a moment of clarity over the weekend, made the most cogent argument yet. “When you have questions about your Android, I can never answer them because what I know is the iPhone.  If you had an iPhone, I could be more helpful.”  Ding, ding, ding.  As of yesterday afternoon, I am now the owner of a red iPhone (with a clear case so the red shows through, of course).  I told YA that she’d better not renege on the “helpful” promise.  So far, so good.

Have you ever cut off your nose to spite your face?

68 thoughts on “Despite My Better Judgment?”

  1. No, I haven’t done that. But I did something similar, using tortured logic to support a terrible decision to avoid exercise classes in my senior living facility.

    For four months I did not participate in exercise classes. My reasons were: 1) my physical limitations would prevent me from doing the exercises; 2) the exercises would be too limited to do any good; plus 3) it would be embarrassing to be the only male doing these things.

    Upon reflection, I realized that I feared the class would be too hard and that it would be too easy. Plus embarrassing.

    Sensing a conflict in my thinking, I participated in one class. It was as difficult and simplistic as I had feared. Plus embarrassing, But the benefits of even one day of exercise could not be denied. I went back. And back. Every day.

    So far, so good. I am the only male doing this, which is embarrassing. But I’m alive, very much alive.

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    4. I signed up for a water aerobics class through Community Ed once, and talked husband into doing so as well. When we showed up for the first class it turned out to be all middle aged women. Husband stayed for the class, though he didn’t participate in the water aerobics part, he swam laps instead. He never went back. I guess the idea of exercising in a pool with a bunch of sixty year old women in swim suits didn’t appeal to him.

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      1. Lou tried yoga with me once. It was really difficult for him, and he was the only guy in that class. It seems like there is always one guy in every class and he was it. At the end when you lie quietly on the mat, he fell asleep and snored loudly.

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  2. i work in word instead of mac even though mac may be better. i speak only english even though spanish german chinese and italian all have appeal in addition to lakota and irish
    i trust others o. my taxes because i just don’t want to learn how to fill out the damn forms.
    i do take time for medical forms and online stuff when needed although i do miss my old right hand man who used to take care of my inadequacy
    i didn’t like elvis or motown in the 60’s
    most hard rock in the 70’s, all disco and at the evolution of heavy metal i decided there are too many options to dislike so i just focus on what i do
    my daughter credits me for her like of folk music . i asked her well doesn’t everybody? she said no
    abstract art, jazz, free form poetry are all stuff i may give too much of a benefit of the doubt.
    i used to avoid beets and squash but i’m a big boy now and i’ll eat em without hiding them under my napkin
    i used to think ramblers were ugly cars. wait… i still think ramblers are ugly cars

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      2. Oh, you beet disrespecters, how can you spout such heresy? There are some Iowa beets in my refrigerator, waiting for me to finish them off.
        Don’t you understand that it is turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas which taste like dirt? Beets are delicious.

        The Minnesota and Iowa Beet Growers Council

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        3. A. Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father, and Charles Lane, his partner in the Fruitlands utopian community, believed that beets and carrots and turnips and rutabagas and all vegetables that grew downward below the ground were less virtuous than vegetables that grow upward. Personally I love beets, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots and all those virtue-challenged vegetables and I’m willing to own my association with them.

          Liked by 4 people

      1. Yes, homemade pickled beets are delicious. The homemade ones always seem more flavorful than commercial ones. I am not sure what the difference could be.

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  3. Is cutting off your nose to spite your face related to marching to a different drummer? I aim for the latter, not the former. Bravo, Steve, for exercising. I know I should, and someday I might.

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  4. Yoga. I went to one class that claimed to be for beginners. It was not. If you didn’t already know the names of each pose or what came next, well, good luck. Felt like I should have been studying before I stepped onto the mat. And I should drop a couple of sizes. Clearly yoga was not meant for people like me.

    A decade and some lost flexibility later, the same friend who dragged me to the first class (she bailed out along with me then) got me out to a new class. With a teacher shaped like me. Who tells you how to move your body and the goal of the pose, plus adjustments if things aren’t comfy. And reminders that you do not need to look like a Lululemon ad. And it’s okay to just lie on the mat for an hour if that’s the yoga your body needs that day.

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    1. Good for you Anna. Yoga, done in an understandable, do-able way is so helpful. I miss it, but since my knee has been hinky, I have not been able to do it. I hope in the spring to return to my “old lady yoga” class.

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      1. My (almost) 85 year old mom goes with me to a class with this inspired. Does the whole class seated in a chair. Her arthritic knee is way past the traditional warrior poses so she does adapted ones. 😊

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        2. I’ve done yoga on and off for forty-five years, and it makes a lot of difference who your instructor is.

          My late friend, Mike, attended a yoga class and a modern dance class, geared specifically toward people with MS and Parkinson’s, once a week for years. Mike could barely walk, and stumbled along using a cane toward the end, and was often the only male in the classes. During one visit to Bellingham I participated in those classes with him; a humbling and inspiring experience, for sure.

          Liked by 3 people

  5. I resisted getting an instant pot, getting another brand of multicooker. We were interested in the technology mainly for cooking rice. It takes 6 minutes in a multicooker to make great pressure cooked risotto. Well, the first cooker worked great for a while, then it didn’t, and wouldn’t seal to pressure cook. Like Sherrilee, I resisted the popular brand until last weekend. Now we have one and it is wonderful.

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    1. I also have resisted the instant pot for the same reasons. Renee, because you like this, and raised the risotto issue when we visited several weeks ago, I have been torn, TORN, by the urge to have such a new-fangled, unnecessary thing (that might be really great, but don’t tell).

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  6. Like you, Sherrilee, I am contrarian by nature and tend to be suspicious of anything too popular. Most of the time, I keep my personal opinions to myself and just keep my own counsel.
    When my old cell phone died, a basic Nokia that was the only one I had ever owned, I was reluctant to replace it with a smart phone for the simple reason that I so rarely use a cell phone that paying for all those features was impractical. Since all of our equipment—computers and iPads—is Apple-based, Android phones were never a consideration. I’ve always found the was Microsoft structures things to be supremely annoying anyway. Robin wanted to be able to text me, something my old Nokia could barely do and not something I did. Having comparable phones also facilitated being on the same plan. Now perhaps you expect that I’m going to reveal at this point that having a smart phone has changed my life, that I am completely converted and I don’t know how I ever did without my smart phone. Nope. Many times it never comes out of my pocket between charges and when it does, most of the time it’s to see that the incoming call is a robocall. The main advantage for me of the smart phone is that I’ve transferred the music that was on my iPod to the phone and set it up on the bluetooth in my car so I never have to listen to music on the radio. I’ve never found a music station that suited my disparate and personal tastes.

    I may have cut off my nose to spite my face by refusing to join Facebook, but I’ll never know. Back in the days before Facebook, there were Lists—special online interest groups where you could exchange information and comments. The lists and the comments weren’t owned by anyone and nobody was mining data from them. I used to be quite active on several. Now all that activity seems to have migrated to
    Facebook and unless you sign up, you are shut out. But even as a non-member, Facebook has access somehow to people I’ve corresponded with in the past and people who are associated with people I have corresponded with. I know that by the “friend suggestions” I receive almost daily. I was signed up with Linked In for a while until I realized that Linked In could access my contact list and was sending invitations to connect to people on my behalf without my knowledge. Personally, that creeps me out.

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      1. My son warned me that FB used data and personal information in ways that he considers intrusive and unethical. My short-lived dalliance with FB proved him right.

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        1. I am mostly only look at Facebook. Hit the occasional like and that’s about it. I still cleave to my rule of only 50 friends. So if someone asks to friend me who seems would be a good choice, then somebody else has to go. And I just found out last week that my cat Nimue has a Facebook page. And an Instagram account.

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        2. FB can be a time suck, and I urge anyone who uses it to use a lot of discretion, both about what posts you read and trust, and what you share.

          To my mind, FB can be a great tool, and I love it. Gives me lots of pleasure every single day, and keeps me in contact with lots of old friends. The quality of your “friends” makes a huge difference in what your FB experience is.

          Liked by 1 person

        4. I’m curious, vs, why limit yourself to 50 friends? I have 369, and there are only about nineteen of them that I could dismiss without missing them. They take up no space, so why evict them if they’re not causing any trouble?

          Liked by 1 person

        5. Any number I chose was going to be arbitrary and since I don’t want all of my time sucked down the vortex that his Facebook, I chose the arbitrary number of 50.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. PS, a cousin who works for ACT in Iowa City on testing technology reminded me that “contrarian” is at times termed superior critical thinking skills, that highly desired and rare trait that is responsible for effective decision-making and executive function.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    My Honda Pilot SUV and my Ford Escape are vehicles I thought I opposed for “ethical” reasons—who needed an SUV. This lasted until I developed SI joint problems in my hips 11 years ago. I discovered that the angles at which our Honda Accord seats held my body were partially responsible for this. The chronic pain of that changed my attitude when I discover that a Ford Escape seat, seated at an angle that did not exacerbate the SI joint, solved the problem. I caved. And at this point the mileage problems of earlier SUV’s have been solved. Now the SUV is also made as a hybrid vehicle which is even thriftier with fuel.

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  8. I long ago learned it is foolish to be a contrarian just because people advocating for something offered such stupid arguments when trying to persuade me. In point of fact, others might be right even if their reasons are idiotic.

    I once felt pressured by people telling me I should father a child. The things they said were so offensively stupid that I became reluctant to bring another child into the world. Then I thought things through for myself, deciding it would be foolish to miss one of the most profound experiences life has to offer. I shudder to think now that I might not have had a child, as that has been the single best decision I’ve made in life.

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  9. At tax time, when I’m battling with Turbo Tax and cursing Quicken for not understanding investment basics such as how to record stock option transactions (Options are NOT stocks, Quicken!!!!), I sometimes wonder if I’m making my tax return filing more difficult (cutting off my nose to spite the government?)

    But if our fearless leaders decide we “must” voluntarily compute our tax bill each year, I’ll be damned if I’ll pay someone to do it for me. Taxes shouldn’t be so complicated that we must pay experts to figure them out for us. So I wonder if the hours and hours I spend all year tracking my expenses, investments, income, and savings on Quicken just so I only need to spend a few hours with TurboTax to prepare my return is folly or a meaningful, if ultimately futile, protest against too much government.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. I, on the other hand, will pay almost anything not to complete a form with lots of little boxes, computerized or paper. There is no form that I cannot f*** up which results in a cascade of undesirable consequences. Even with my professional credentialing forms I have to have someone else do them. Medicare provider forms are particularly difficult with land mines throughout.

      Given this particular disability, it is far cheaper to pay someone else to do them correctly.

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  10. Chameleon
    Phenomenon words are empty like a chameleon
    Elegance
    Over Darkness
    ‘’I enjoy this ‘’
    Hurt another, my imprisoned video, jealous cuz’
    our life grew stronger
    Chameleon
    A gecko
    Thought-ful demons riddle in my head, strategist, activist, writer, holocaust – sly
    with blackmail & a broken heart.
    Don’t just troll us
    we hide thoughts
    Regret soaks in
    Works hard;lack of affection
    ( Perfection )
    Aggravations too eerie
    Chameleon

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  11. I was at the polling place all day today, not my precinct but one close by. A guy came in who wanted to vote on St. Paul’s organized trash referendum. Most baboons don’t live in St. Paul, and I won’t go into great detail about it, but there are many people who have reservations about the city’s new organized trash system and have some well-thought-out suggestions about how to change it and make it better. Then there are those “get government off my back” types who insist the city has no right to make them pay for trash pickup. This guy was one of the latter group, and loudly proclaimed he was there to vote no on the referendum. He was not registered to vote, and I offered him a voter registration form, but he immediately went off on a screed on the general topic of government intrusion, not wanting to tell the government where he lived or his date of birth or whether he was a citizen in order to be able to vote. I guess he thought he should just be able to walk in and vote anonymously.

    I stuck to my position – no registration, no ballot – and he left noselessly. One less “no” vote on organized trash.

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    2. My fellow election judges and I discussed this a little later in the day. A couple of alternate explanations were proposed, besides the most obvious one – the guy is an anti-government extremist. One alternate explanation: he can’t read well enough to fill out the application, and started to rant about government intrusion to cover his embarrassment about his illiteracy. Another theory: he had already voted in his home precinct, and then figured since, as we all know, [sarcasm alert] voter fraud is so easy to commit, he would try voting in a few other precincts as well. I’ll never know for sure.

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  12. I can’t think of anything except the times I get in a snit, or need to be right, or decide to be mad, and manage to ruin a perfectly good evening.

    OT: Today was packing day with our friend W. Either tomorrow or Thursday is moving day, depending on how much snow we get here. Then Friday is clear-out and cleaning day. Hope to be more present when this is done.

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