Little by little, bit by bit

- Just words -

I've noticed how technology has caused me to change my ways. The way I spell, the way I fill out forms. It causes my narrative to change.

Take the word y'all. I used to write it ya'll, but autocorrect doesn't like that so I just go with the suggestion it makes. Looking back at old letters, though, I see that we spelled it ya'll. 

I've tried resurrecting letter writing with a few people, but it didn't take. It's like I was being a weirdo and they let it pass by without comment.

I'll admit, sometimes letter writing was boring. There was more pleasure in seeing familiar handwriting than the content. Phone calls could be the same way, enjoying hearing a familiar voice more than what was actually being said.

I can't believe I didn't have a constant phone line until after I had my second child. It was nice, my parents lived across town, but they were in another world as far as I was concerned, since they couldn't instantly access me. They were always in another quadrant, in my mind, anyway. I loved them, but I was living a different life, even when I lived in their house.

Another way technology has noticeably changed my story is how I am allowed to answer when filling out online forms.

Insurance companies won't let me say that I got my license when I was 15. I did, though. It was called a hardship license. Like many kids around here, I was driving long before I got my license. Some time around the age of 11. Somebody had to follow Dad on the tractor.

Since I was forced to lie on my insurance form, I just say whatever seems to be wanted on other forms. I gave up trying to be correct, in that sense. Except on my taxes. I try to be precise there, but my stomach still hurts when I turn in my 1040. 

Oil dreams and other things

- Big dreamer -

This doodle came from an old book I found, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S. T. Coleridge. This particular volume, from the Eclectic English Classics series, must have been used as a college class text, because inside the covers it has a few different names (one of them along with "Carlton College") written, erased and marked through. One name is dated 1917, so I'm surmising this drawing came from that era. That's over one hundred years of dreaming! I thought I had been thinking about it a long time, like it was something new.

The oil field is deeply embedded in my culture. When I was three, I moved to Sweetwater with my mother, where she went to work for Big State Welding, which became Big State Roustabout. My dad worked for Reef in Snyder, when it was still a local business, first driving a treater truck, then as a supervisor. My uncle Hack had an oil transport business. Boyfriends, friends and my son have worked on rigs. I really don't know much about the oil business, but I find I'm able to have a literate conversation about it because it's always been part of my life. Learning by osmosis, I guess.

I liked hearing my mom talk on the radio. In her no-nonsense manner of speaking, she would call up "Piss Ant" or "Sleepy" on the radio to relay information.

Even now I still have Big State stickers and paraphernalia floating around in boxes and drawers.

That business ended in 1986, when oil crashed and everything had to be auctioned off.

It's good to remember that the dream can come to an end. Such a volatile market. Save now! Be an ant, not a grasshopper!

New selling platform for Texas Unclaimed Property

- Tx Comptroller ad -

I received a flyer in the mail announcing that Texas Unclaimed Property will now be sold on GovDeals. The Texas Comptroller has been using ebay for years to auction off unclaimed deposit box items. I have them on my ebay sellers list, and I've been wondering why they haven't had anything for sale in a while. They have some weird feedback on ebay, where the buyer says good things, but marks it as negative. Maybe the comptroller got fed up with the head games.

The GovDeals set up isn't as pretty and easy to use as ebay, and there's a buyer's premium of 9.5%. They're shipping using FedEx and won't ship to post office boxes, something I've never understood (the P.O. box thing, I mean). You can pay using PayPal, I like that. I guess the thing to do is to make an account, bid on something, and see how it goes. ebay isn't the be-all, end-all, right?