I am starting a new series which I have dipped into before without a thematic thread joining episodes. Annals of Aging

My episide today is the mystery of MOTIVATION and the m ysteries of NEW MEDIA

About two. or maybe even three years ago, I ventured to the apple store in the Cherry Hill Mall with an excellent tip from the local Verizon store guy to go just in time to be at the door when it slides open at 10:00.

Motivation: I had been going to the verizon store for help with my iphone which was failing in its mission to provide music for me at the gym. I won't go into that - it is a blog post of its own. Suffice it to say it was a wifi complication among other things but NOBODY had been able to solve it at the gym, or the verizon store and they couldn't solve it at apple either. The phone just kept cutting out so I was replacing it as it was old and the battery was failing.

At the apple store, I took advantage of the August back-to-school-special offers and replaced my old laptop (which had been given to me by my daughter some time before) as well as my old iphone and solve the issue of my ipod as well.

The ipod was dead, couldn t take a charge, and would never be replaced as they were being phased out by the iphones. After much time and struggling I emerged from the store with a new laptop and a new iphone at great discount prices (the whole thing for $1200) and a free set of wireless ear buds! At home, I was able to manuever my way through the new media with patience and perseverence but I was mystified by the ear buds. My daughter was due to visit at some point and when she did, she set up the ear buds rapidly and with a small display of irritation that I wasn't able to do so easy a thing. I couldn't do it because I had no instruction booklet, only a small square plastic jewelry box with two buds inside - period! She installed an app and said I was ready to go and she left.

I opened the box like a monkey finding a satelite phone and put it away in my coffee table drawer where it lay for two more years.

Recently when I returned to the gym, I decided at first to just listen to the cacophony of static and incomprehensible shrieking that is the sound system at the gym rather than again enter the fray of trying to make my iphone work at the gym and listen to music. Then, I discovered that my old corded ear buds didn't work with the new iphone anyhow and the new buds remained as pristine and mysterious as the day I first saw them. No buttons, no instructions. No clue how to make them turn on.

First clue: at the hair salon recently, getting my annual shearing before the heat set in, I asked my hair stylist, Shana, a young person that I presumed may have some knowledge of these things. She didn't but another stylist nearby, a few years younger did: "charge your buds with your phone charger first, then just squeeze the post on the buds and they will work automatically. Look on the case for a little light that is hidden until the buds are charged, then you know they are ready to go."

I charged adn charged and looked and looked and the mysterious light never came on. This morning, in a rare spell of apathy and laziness that my morning latte' hadn't been able to budge, I took out the box with the buds once more.

First, though, I had done some research via google on ways to listen to music at the gym that didn't require the phone or the buds and of course, I was referred to the venerable mp3 player, which I had used about 20 years ago until some innovation had outdated that as well. Hopeless, I took out the earbud box and opened it for one last look before I relegated it to the drawer for evermore, and lo and behold the mysterious light was ON INSIDE of The little white Box!!!

I put the buds in my ear and opened apple music on my phone and subscribed for 3 months FREE and listened to Joni Mitchell! I was ELATED! Out of the jaws of abject failure had come success and the sound was remarkable.

A surprising consequence of this victory was that I was motivated into two of my more avoidance prone chores - shower and replacing the dog covers in her dish tray.

MOTIVATION: Generally a Dunkin Donuts latte' is enough caffeine drive and motivation to get me to do the chores I find myself most reluctant to do - cat litter boxes, laundry, showering. You may have heard how older people don't like to shower and there are reasons for that. One reason is that it is dangerous and we know it. Our balance is poor, our joints are not reliable and it is hard to climb over the tub to get in and out of the slippery tub. I have handles which I had installed and my tub/shower enclosure has built in handles so that is a big help. I like to be clean and that helps. Usually, I parlay one chore with another as in, I will get the litter boxes done first and the bathroom will smell nicer and then I can shower.

My resolution of the $100 valued ear buds wasting away in the coffee table drawer for two years was such a powerful motivation boost that I changed the absorbant cloths in my dogs food try and got my shower in 15 minutes flat!!!

I would say this is a result of the power of learning something new which every kind of newsletter recommends as a healthful factor in countering the ravages of aging. I suppose most young people have other young people to help them figure out new media, or I guess they go to youtube for help (which I have tried for other things but I don't do well with auditory instruction - I am a reader and NO new media comes with written instructions anymore). Anyhow, when I go to the gym on Wednesday, I will have my ear buds, and Joni Mitchell to help me pedal through my 15 minutes on the stationary bike as well as rhythm up my repititions on the seated rower, the abs machine, and the leg crunch!

Persevere, my friends - ask for help, and keep on trying to move incrementally into the future!

wrightj45@yahoo.com