About a year ago, I bought a Five-Minute Journal to help me find a bit more gratitude in my life.

Finally got around to starting it this morning and, in the introduction, I was struck by the middle paragraph:

I can only hope that, once they survive their second once-in-a-lifetime financial crisis AND a global pandemic, the twenty-somethings out there can finally get back to their mobile-phone games. They’ll have earned it.

Amazing how an, arguably, contemporary book can already feel like such a relic.

[The above aside, it’s a good journal!]

[to the tune of “Day Tripper”]

Good night, everybody!

Is it really an “iPhone SE” if it doesn’t have the things that made the original special?

Apple announces its new iPhone SE as fans hold on tightly to their older versions – The Washington Post

“I always tell people, the unsheathed SE is the phone Steve Jobs intended and that’s why it’s a great phone,” Wessman says.

He’s not alone in his love for the smaller four-year-old iPhone model best known for being the last from the company to have a four-inch screen. Faithful owners praise the phone’s ability to fit into one hand, its headphone jack and its sturdy construction.

Amen. I love my iPhone SE.

I don’t want haptic touch or a larger screen or rounded corners. And I certainly don’t want to need a freakin’ dongle so I can use a pair of earbuds. (Earbuds which, might I add, never need to be charged.)

People keep their smartphones an average of 2.6 years, according to market research company the NPD Group. They’re starting to keep them even longer, due in part to factors like a drop in carrier subsidies and easier battery replacements.

3 years and going for me.

I know eventually that the OS won’t update, webpages will stop fitting on the screen and newer apps won’t be able to be installed but, even then, it’ll be another few years before I buy something new.

Now, get off my lawn.

Trying to end tonight on a high note so here’s a list of all I accomplished today:

• woke at a half-decent hour
• drank coffee and wrote my Morning Pages out on the patio
• made 2 jugs of cucumber water
• made a big batch of salmon cakes
• did a half-hour online joint session with my wife and her therapist
• walked for 30 minutes on our treadmill (in the Swiss Alps!)
• napped with my Riley-roo
• meditated for 10 minutes (Day 879!)
• watched the follow-up episode of “Tiger King” with my wife
• shaved my god-awful facial hair
• took a hot bath and listened to 2 “How To” podcasts on helping stay sane during quarantine
• wrote this post

Today didn’t look or feel productive to me but, when I lay it all out like that, I actually feel better.