YOU don’t know how to use your iPhone yet, and there’s the iPhone 15 now coming soon to an Apple Store near you. How time flies.

To remind us to savor each day instead of letting it pass by without a trace, we need our own special days, in addition to those international and national days that have been trending on social media. So, here’s my own list for the week: Working Day on Monday; Re-arranging the Closet Day, Tuesday; Column-Writing Day, Wednesday; Movie-Watching Day, Thursday; Eating-Out Day, Friday; Hair Appointment Day, Saturday; and Book-Reading Day, Sunday.

I’m not an Elton John fan, but here I am, reading his autobiography, “Me.” And I watched “Rocketman” in 2019. This must be the result of curiosity on the genius behind the song, “Skyline Pigeon.” We used to sing that at home, using a Jingle magazine to guide us for the lyrics and chords: “For just a skyline pigeon/Dreaming of the open/Waiting for the day/That he can spread his wings/And fly away again/Fly away, skyline pigeon fly/Towards the dreams/You’ve left so very far behind.”

Once upon a time, the young ones’ idea of a ganap was to have a sing-along at home using a piano or a guitar as accompaniment. Smartphones and Facebook were merely figments in some geniuses’ wildest imaginations then. And FOMO—Fear of Missing Out—was only triggered through an invite via a landline call, and there was no way anyone could call us if the party line was using his phone. Blissfully unaware of events outside of the house, we would sing the days away, and not even the threat of rain—caused by our out-of-tune voices—could stop us.

Life was simple then. My concerns were school, the Glee Club, and piano lessons. And some parties, group dates, and puppy love. Haha. The hobbies were already there, though: reading books, collecting whatever, watching TV and movies. The only writing I did was for our English and Pilipino subjects, and writing letters. For that kind of writing to evolve to column writing is, hmmm, a miracle.

Now, my main concern is the daily menu. What to eat for brunch and dinner. Since I already promised to never discuss diets again, that’s all I’m allowing myself to reveal about diets.

So, let’s switch to more relevant topics, such as the phone’s weather-weather app whose forecast for the day may say it’s going to be sunny. You leave the house without an umbrella, but it’s suddenly raining cats and dogs later in the afternoon. Climate change pa more.

Along with the absence of mobile phones and Facebook, climate change was one more thing that didn’t exist when we were young. With August having a confusing weather—too dry, too wet, or both dry and wet on the same day—no need to wonder why the weather-weather app is also confused. The best way to deal with this is to work from home. Since face-to-face is now the norm, you may have to look for Rihanna as she sings, “Now that it’s raining more than ever/Know that we’ll still have each other/You can stand under my umbrella.”