Go West, Young Man....

...and grow up with the country! That's the whole quote, often mis-attributed to Horace Greely but actually penned by an editorial writer for an Indiana newspaper. My wife and I are headed west for a week or so, and we've vowed to leave most of our modern tech stuff at home. No laptops, no BlackBerrys, just a cell phone, and not even a "smart" cell phone. We're doing something we've talked about for a long time, going out to Arizona to take in some Spring Training games. Hence, there'll be no blogging until after the 3rd of March.

No updating the Facebook status. No obsessing about the retirement funds. No scanning the web just to check on what's goin' on in the world. Sunshine, baseball, poolside margaritas, room service. No e-mail. Just a digital camera and one cell phone with our private number, so our daughter, who's house- and dog-sitting can check in, and vice-versa.

Friday night, we were at a gathering of some of the city's finest old-school news folks. A friend of long-standing, who like me is a former news anchor, was taking pictures, making videos, and even updating his Facebook status on his phone. One of those new-fangled things we really shouldn't call a phone, because it's really so much more. His phone even synchs with Outlook on his desktop computer at home, so he can take his "office" with him wherever he goes. No thanks.

I still recall the look on the young man's face at the phone store when I went in to 'upgrade" from an analog to a digital cell phone several years ago. He said something like "what do you want it to do - games, videos, send pictures, e-mail - what apps do you use most?". I said, after a suitable pause, "I would like it to have the capability to place and recieve phone calls". After a suitable pause on his part to digest this, he steered me to a Motorola Razor, which I still have. It places and recieves calls just fine.

So it's off to Arizona, and a hiatus in the blogging. But I suspect I'll be sneaking into the "Business Center" at the hotel where we're staying, and "just checking up on things" with one of the computers available there. I suspect my wife will, as well. Maybe just a quick look at Facebook.....