The other day, my wrist watch rang. I glanced at the screen to see that my sister was calling so I immediately started rooting for my phone which was stashed in my pocket.
But somehow I managed to answer the watch first and suddenly I could hear a tinny voice,“Hey, what’s going on?” emanating from my watch.
“Um, can you hear me?” I leaned my face down toward the watch because there must be a small microphone to go with the tiny speaker.
“Why wouldn’t I?” she said.
“Well, I accidentally answered your call on my watch.”
“Oh, brother. You and your Dick Tracy watch.”
Remember Dick Tracy? He was a cartoon adventurer who could speak several languages and endured hundreds of near-death situations and injuries. His jutting jaw is iconic. And he had a cool watch that served as a two-way radio. Unheard of in the days of his adventures.
Not today.
This watch tells me when I get a new text. It has a nifty little timer that’s very helpful with the grandsons’ game time. I think it might be able to bake the cookies if I gave it a chance.
Oh, yeah, it tells time, too, but that’s pretty boring compared to all this other stuff.
One year, I got a “Happy birthday, Kathy!” message from my watch. It hasn’t done it since so maybe I said something I shouldn’t have.
My watch reminds me to stand up every hour and it conducts a breathing clinic at least once a day. For my health, of course. It also records my exercise for the day and gives me these trophies when I accomplish my goals.
“A trophy?” my sister said. “You do all this work for a little trophy on your watch?”
Well, yeah. I don’t need to dust those awards.
I love new information and how amazing is it that I can get it from looking at my wrist? Like the weather.
Colorado and most of the US went through a deep freeze a few weeks ago. Just to torture myself, I always checked my watch before going outside to feed our animals.
One of the watch’s quirks is measuring Zero as -0. Made it look colder to me. And the temperatures crept downward. -10. -20. My hands were aching.
And then the storm turned. Friends were reporting that the temperatures were slowly crawling upward. I looked at my watch. -18. Not so warm.
My husband announced that his thermometer was showing 5 degrees. My watch insisted on -15. Why was his thermometer was so inaccurate?
Then he said it was 18 degrees. My watch showed -8.
I spent the day cowering near our woodturning stove wondering why my husband was so confused.
But, when he said the temperature for the day had gotten to a balmy 28 degrees while my watch insisted on -4, I finally re-examined my assumptions.
You know how I answered a phone call on my watch without ever touching it? Well, apparently I have the same ability with the weather app.
Once I restored my watch to Fahrenheit rather than Celsius, my hands quit hurting and the sun felt so warm.
That watch is amazing.
