Joshua and #644

It's a well-known fact around our family and close friends that Joshua loves to know about the weather. First thing in the morning, and the last thing at night...he is watching the news, checking out the forecast for the next day. He loves one of our local stations...the anchors, the sportscasters and especially the weather team.

Backtracking...

When the kids were younger and came of a certain age...they each got a cell phone. Well, the two middle children, anyway. We didn't get Joshua one because we thought that it might be too complicated for him, and that it might open up a world to him that he wasn't ready to handle. He's just so innocent and trusting.

Enter: Mammaw Jack.

She didn't think it was FAIR that Joshua didn't have a phone, because he was the oldest child...and so she bustled in and just INSISTED in her Marie Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond) way to Jim, and presto! Joshua got a phone (she also got Clark a phone when he was just 10 years old because ALL of our other kids had one and that wasn't FAIR to him). Anyway, we got Joshua a red flip phone. He LOVED it. We programmed our numbers into it...mine and Jim's and Holly's. We cautioned him that he was ONLY to use it for emergencies. At the time, I don't think we even put the grandparents' numbers in there because we were afraid that he would be non-stop calling them.

We didn't get him a texting plan, because he didn't know anything about that.

OR SO WE THOUGHT.

Imagine my surprise one night...I was out with some girlfriends from church, and got a text from Joshua. A TEXT. Even more surprised when I found out that it was a PICTURE. Who taught him how to take pictures on his phone? Anyway, it was a picture of a blurry green blob, and with the picture he had written: "i ate a salad."

So later that week, Joshua got a texting plan (obviously!)...and there was no stopping him after that! Most of his texts are written like this: "leav.inghot.springs. .we will. behome.  soon.$"

But we get the general idea of them, and hey...not gonna lie...I am impressed he can do it!

I have a point to this post, I promise.

Technology is not wasted on Joshua. He will work at it and figure it out...and little Miss Jenni, his girlfriend, fills in the rest with what she knows. That girl is tech savvy! She taught him to take pictures and change his background, and she sent him ringtones. She also taught him to lock his phone with a password...which turned out terribly wrong when neither one of them could remember the word that they used and we had to go to the att place and get the whole thing taken care of.

Jim was NOT HAPPY.

I was actually surprised that he forgot the password. Joshua has a mind like a steel trap. He remembers everything. We would periodically go through his phone and delete numbers he had added...numbers of random people or casual acquaintances. He always noticed if some were missing, but he had them committed to memory and would just add them right back.

Last year, we got Joshua an i-phone. No, he doesn't need it. But this was a case where all of his friends had one so...

Wait. Making sure you caught that. ALL OF HIS FRIENDS HAVE ONE. Plus, he was 26 years old at the time...and I mean...you pick your battles, right?

Joshua is all over the iphone. Jim put music on there for him, and he has Instagram and knows how to use "Google..." which, that has actually been a problem. He can type in anything and find information on it. There are movies that we have not allowed him to watch, and he has figured out how to get on youtube and watch clips from them on his iphone...the little stinker.

So...the point of all of this.

He said that he used his Channel 7 weather app tonight, and saw that the time for the sunrise in Fayetteville (a town 2 1/2 hours away from us...WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?) will be at 6:44 in the morning.

Okay...

He said, "and do you know what THAT reminds me of?"

Me: "no."

Joshua, "that was our number when we lived in Searcy, and wanted to order chicken strips at the country club pool."

We haven't lived there in 7 years...but yes, that was our number.

See what I mean?

"...a wise son makes a father glad..." Proverbs 10:1