It’s time to organize my Star Herald plans for 2022.
I know this because our month-at-a-glance, 14-month spiral-bound 2022 calendar planners were distributed this week at the office.
Did I prefer a teal- or raspberry-colored plastic cover? I didn’t care. My planner is propped open on my desk so the cover is never visible.
“Pick one.”
I chose raspberry, but it looked more like cranberry. Not that I cared.
I’m caring less about annual planners as Siri is doing a better job of organizing my life.
“Siri, remind me of my City Council meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday.” She replies, “Okay. I’ll remind you.”
She doesn’t need to look up a phone number in a Rolodex, which is collecting dust next to my landline telephone.
“Siri, call the mayor.” She calls him. “Siri, text Mavis.” “What would like to say in your text?” I tell her. She reads it back. “Would you like me to send this?” I tell her to “send.”
But Siri is only as good as her human, who sometimes doesn’t specify a.m. or p.m. and sometimes doesn’t enunciate well. “Call Matt S” often sounds like “Matus” (as in Todd Matus).
And I still supplement my digital planner with the paper and pencil one, if for no other reason than nostalgia.
In the front is a section, “This is the personal property of …” with blanks to fill in a name, address, home phone and business phone (no cell phone).
The good student in me feels compelled to fill in these blanks to get credit for the assignment.
The cranberry planner has plain sheets of lined paper for “notes,” and several pages to record contacts … names, addresses, email addresses, websites and, of course, fax numbers.
There’s a section to fill in my emergency contact and medical information, including my blood type. Because you never know when you’ll have to present your cranberry planner in an emergency.
Of course, Siri has this all in my iPhone filed under ICE (in case of emergency).
The 2022 cranberry-colored planner also has metric conversions for distance, capacity, weight, area, volume and temperature.
Did you know that one liquid barrel is equal to 158.980 liters?
I didn’t, but if I needed to know, I would ask Siri.
In defense of my cranberry planner, Siri doesn’t smell like fresh ink and paper. And she doesn’t require a No. 2 pencil sharpened with a 1950s wall-mounted sharpener and an eraser (because plans can change).
Old habits die hard.
If only my paper cranberry planner would generate an alarm when it’s time to go to an appointment or meet a special deadline.
Happy planning, dear readers. 2022 is just around the corner.