Saturday morning, I woke up after having played until 3:30 AM.
It was the day that I was going to try to go to Howard's place in Gretna, and return the tablet to him.
It was a beautiful day, about 72 degrees with hardly a breeze.
I stopped and bought him two bags of Cheetoz, to assuage my feelings of guilt over having had it for almost two weeks.
I gave him the full report on it; the conclusion being that, it would give him the ability to most easily do all kinds of Internet activities "on the go."
To use the thing in his home, however, he will have to spring for some kind of wi-fi access to be ported into the place. At that point, all the features that make the tablet light, small and easy to take along, would become liabilities, and Howard would wind up sitting on his bed, squinting at the thing and trying to hit tiny areas of the screen with his fat thumbs.
There are a only a few things that he does online, however, and it would be possible for him to learn the correct touchscreen mumbo jumbo to accomplish them -reading about sports, shopping for DVD's and moving money in and out of his stock portfolio.*
He wanted to know how much it was worth. This might have been because he wanted to know how much Berta and Ken had paid for it. I guess the more they spent, the more they might hope that he was getting good use out of the thing.
We watched the football games.
At one point, Berta, one of his housemates asked me if I wanted a hamburger. I accepted, and it was one of the best hamburgers I have ever tasted, with a wood smoke flavor and just juicy enough.
Then, Howard got on a subject that I had never heard him speak about, his time working as a prison chaplain.
He seems to still harbor animosity towards some of the people he worked with over that eight year period. I could see genuine anger on his face as he talked about how prisons didn't run very well, describing their dynamics as "a game," and how his co-workers had "f***ed it all up", as if it had happened only yesterday. That was interesting, and accounts for at least eight of Howard's sixty-nine years on the planet.
He apologized for having "ranted" on the subject. Somehow an anger over his now ex-wife's having blamed him for the problem with his co-workers "our relationship deteriorated over the next ten years, starting then," still burns within him and glows red on his face when he is ranting about it. Interesting...
*I have never pried into Howard's financial situation as long as I've know him. I once surmised that he was collecting social security benefits and living as a homeless person so he could divert the money into things other than his base survival.
Saturday he informed me that, since the election of Donald Trump as president, his stocks "have been going crazy." He said that he has been making a thousand dollars every couple weeks on them, lately.
He is planning to take a trip to the Canadian Rockies this summer, and also asked me if I wanted his 27" high definition TV, after he gets a bigger one.
It was the day that I was going to try to go to Howard's place in Gretna, and return the tablet to him.
It was a beautiful day, about 72 degrees with hardly a breeze.
I stopped and bought him two bags of Cheetoz, to assuage my feelings of guilt over having had it for almost two weeks.
I gave him the full report on it; the conclusion being that, it would give him the ability to most easily do all kinds of Internet activities "on the go."
To use the thing in his home, however, he will have to spring for some kind of wi-fi access to be ported into the place. At that point, all the features that make the tablet light, small and easy to take along, would become liabilities, and Howard would wind up sitting on his bed, squinting at the thing and trying to hit tiny areas of the screen with his fat thumbs.
There are a only a few things that he does online, however, and it would be possible for him to learn the correct touchscreen mumbo jumbo to accomplish them -reading about sports, shopping for DVD's and moving money in and out of his stock portfolio.*
He wanted to know how much it was worth. This might have been because he wanted to know how much Berta and Ken had paid for it. I guess the more they spent, the more they might hope that he was getting good use out of the thing.
We watched the football games.
At one point, Berta, one of his housemates asked me if I wanted a hamburger. I accepted, and it was one of the best hamburgers I have ever tasted, with a wood smoke flavor and just juicy enough.
Then, Howard got on a subject that I had never heard him speak about, his time working as a prison chaplain.
He seems to still harbor animosity towards some of the people he worked with over that eight year period. I could see genuine anger on his face as he talked about how prisons didn't run very well, describing their dynamics as "a game," and how his co-workers had "f***ed it all up", as if it had happened only yesterday. That was interesting, and accounts for at least eight of Howard's sixty-nine years on the planet.
*I have never pried into Howard's financial situation as long as I've know him. I once surmised that he was collecting social security benefits and living as a homeless person so he could divert the money into things other than his base survival.
Saturday he informed me that, since the election of Donald Trump as president, his stocks "have been going crazy." He said that he has been making a thousand dollars every couple weeks on them, lately.
He is planning to take a trip to the Canadian Rockies this summer, and also asked me if I wanted his 27" high definition TV, after he gets a bigger one.
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