Progress???

142 years ago today, in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was finally completed so that people in this country could move from east to west easily. Now I don't know about you, but in what seems to me to be a very short period of time we have moved so far away from that system that it is scary to me. We can now fly across our great nation, in any direction, in a matter of hours now, not days or weeks as before.

That is, of course, unless you live in a major city like Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Los Angles, etc - then it still takes huge amounts of time just to move across the city during certain peek times of the day. Why is that?

Another tidbit of useless information that is rattling around in my head today is why does the new Apple iPad II do much more, at much greater speeds, than the "old" iPad and yet it costs exactly the same? At the same time, many other electronic gadgets have risen in price and we seem immune to complaining about that?

Why is it that when the crude oil prices go up every single gas station across America instantly raises their pump pricing on gas, yet when there is a drop in the price of crude oil those same stations take weeks to slightly lower the price - think up 12 cents per gallon and down 1 or 2 cents per gallon.

As I grow older it seems to me that "progress" absolutely changes meaning. We tend to reminisce about those "Good Old Days" when things were cheaper and slower, etc. Remember how the first computers (mine was a Radio Shack TRS-80) seemed to boot up so quickly? Now my iPad opens up literally millions of times more info in just a second or two, now is that progress? Do I really NEED that info that quickly?

Finally, I ask you why it is that birthdays come around so quickly now as opposed to say when we were 4 or 5 and just couldn't wait to be old enough to start real school. How about when you were 15 waiting to turn 16 so you could get your drivers license? That 12 month period seemed to take 5 years as I remember it.

There used to be a TV commercial that had a tag line of: "You've come a long way Baby" but at my advanced age I just can't remember what the product was that they were pushing or why they said that line. I do remember I questioned that thought back then and even more so today. Yes progress has changed my world and I'm not sure it has been for the better.

These are my thoughts what are yours?

Steve