‘Smart’ Watch

I got a smart watch for my birthday! I wanted it very much, and I think I’m glad to have it. However, I only got one band with it… and the band did not agree with my wrist. Now that my wrist has broken out all around, my sweet eldest grandson has brought me new watchbands, which look and feel better than what came with it.

I’m lucky it’s just the band. As I longed for a new watch, Hannah commented more than once she should just give me her watch, as she’s allergic to the metal in the watch, so the watch itself breaks out her arm, and a new watchband won’t help anything.

But, I didn’t take Hannah’s; I waited for Emily to purchase me one. (I don’t know why this task fell to her, but it did.) Anyway, I was interested in measuring my steps, of course, but I also was interested in some of the health information the watch can relay, as I’ve had a couple of hiccups in my vitals over the last year. Nothing too serious, but we’re all getting older.

Now that I have the watch, I’m still getting used to it, having left it at home two days…two days that I walked, meaning I didn’t get credit for my steps.

My friend, Linda and I joke about it, like we don’t get the health benefit of walking if we don’t record it. When, in actuality, we shouldn’t need a watch to tell us we got our exercise if we know we took the time and effort to walk. (We walk around the cemetery three times, which totals about 2.5 miles, and takes about 45 minutes)

I know all that now that I have a watch telling me. And, my friend Roxie is often interested in making sure she “closes the rings” on her watch. Emily does the same thing….I’ve seen her do more than one set of jumping jacks trying to meet her exercise goal.

For those who are not familiar, the watch will tell you when to stand up cause you’ve been sitting too long. My husband said he didn’t want a watch to tell him what to do. I kind of like it. You sometimes don’t realize how long you’ve been sitting still. On the other hand, I was at a play Sunday, and halfway through my watch told me to stand up. Alas, I could not. And, as I sit through County Commission and other meetings, sometimes I get that same nudge… stand up… and I know other people in the room are also being nudged by their smart watches. It would be bedlam if we all just stood up and walked around in the middle of the meeting.

But, when sitting at the office, or at home, it’s sometimes a welcome suggestion to get up and move. And, oftentimes in the evening, I need just a little more exercise to “close my rings.”

Another benefit of the watch is that it tells me my phone is ringing. That’s helpful as I am notoriuss for keeping my phone on silent and then, naturally, missing calls.

These smart watches and smart phones may be the end of my brain all together. I don’t think I’m smart enough to operate either like they are designed to be operated. My phone has nearly 20 icons on the screen at times. What would I ever do with all those possibilities?

And my phone… I don’t delete the apps, as I might use them one day…but so far I have a very expensive toy that I don’t think I get my money’s worth out of as I use the phone mostly to play games, talk and text and the watch to tell time and clock my exercise. One day may be I’ll delve further into the possibilities and appear to be as smart as my watch and phone can make me!