Great Inventions

What inventions have had the biggest impact on my day-to-day life?

Computer

- Internet

- Social Media

- Shopping

- Smart Phone

Texting, camera, calendar, address book, navigation and GPS, shopping, reservations, banking, reading, videos, news, weather, translation, phone (with or without visual).

- Smart Watch

Golf app, Notifications and alerts, timer, alarm, activity monitoring (walking, jogging, paddling, biking, etc.)

Automobile

- Interstate System

Airplane and Spacecraft

- Air Travel

- Air Defense

- Drones

- Cold War

- Satellites

- Worldwide Communication

- Weather Information

- GPS

Hot Tub

Medicine

- Medical Procedures

- Vaccines

- Drug Therapy

- B-12, Cholesterol, Hormone, Thyroid, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Blood thinner ( heart attack and stroke prevention ).

Fox News - NOT!

Toilets and Running Water

By far, this is the most important invention to me. Indoor plumbing is the one thing that has the biggest influence on my daily life.

I am well known at the golf course for going to the bathroom at the turn. We start around 8:30 and finish the first nine holes around 10:15. I am so regular that every day at that time I have to find a toilet. I eat my fiber. Charlie and John who work at the clubhouse laugh at me for being so regular.

When I get ready to leave the house in the morning, if it is around 10:00 and I haven’t been to the toilet yet I just get another cup of coffee and wait. I don’t want to get out shopping or at the gym and have to use their Toilet.

When I was a kid and we lived in Daisy, Tennessee, we had an outhouse. I bathed in a round tub in the kitchen. My mother heated water on the kitchen kerosene stove. There was no heat in the kitchen. There was no privacy. I didn’t bathe much in the Winter. In the Summer I bathed in the lake when I went swimming.

On my sailboat the only unpleasant thing is the toilet. We have running water but the toilet is disgusting! You have to hand pump the contents of the toilet up into the holding tank or, if you are beyond the three mile limit you can divert it into the ocean. When you pump the toilet you can feel the macerator mashing the solids and mixing it with water to liquify it. It is so repulsive that on occasions people have hung their butt off the back of the boat or held on the to back of the dingy while it was being towed to do number two, rather than have to hand flush the toilet. By the way, that is not illegal. It is not illegal to use the bathroom in the water. It is only illegal to use the bathroom in a container and then empty the container into the water.

On the Appalachian Trail there is usually a latrine near the shelters. Most of the time you can get a little privacy. The latrine is usually no more than an outdoor toilet with three walls. I remember one where the walls were only waist high. You are out there hiking for days without a bath. Your rear end will usually get a rash after your first bowel movement. I carry wet wipes and triple antibiotic ointment. You have to carry the used wipes and used toilet paper in a zip lock bag until you get to trash receptacle. Trash cans are sometimes found where the trail crosses a road. Unless you are a litterer you may have to carry used toilet paper for a while. I don’t have any problem burning it in the campfire, if I get to build one.

Everyone hates porta-potties. They are so disgusting. At an outdoor event there will be rows of portable toilets with people standing in line while the pee runs out of the toilets and down the sidewalk in a little river. And the people are walking through it. You know people aren’t that different from pigs and cows.