I have a small crystal ball I keep on my desk as a conversational piece. I gaze into it frequently in an attempt to see something in the future. It has never worked for me. I guess you have to be a card-carrying magician for it to work. I recently used it in a speech I made to illustrate about looking into the future.

If I had it all to do over again I may have chosen to be a magician. I recently saw a movie about an illusionist and it was great. I also recently saw a super magic show in Branson by Kirby the Prince of Magic. He made tigers and beautiful girls appear and disappear on stage, and a lot of other incredible stuff. It would have been a lot of fun being a magician.

If I could have made the crystal ball work when I was a kid I might have also chosen the battery business as my career. When I was growing up the only batteries were those big ones, size D, that were used to power a flashlight. Usually only two were required for the flashlight. Now the world runs on batteries. There is AAA, AA, C, D and every other letter in the alphabet.

When I was a kid, toys ran with human power; now they are all battery operated. It is rare for toys to come with batteries and a hand full must be purchased, which cost almost as much as the toy. If the toy has any batteries in the box it is usually the cheap kind made in China that are poisonous and last about 30 seconds. All phones are now battery operated. The cheap plastic phones used in the house with all the buttons for call waiting etc. are stuffed with batteries and cell phones use the kind that must be constantly charged. A relative was talking to me this week when the battery power on their phone started to weaken and we had to end the conversation. That may not be altogether bad and a good way to end a winded conversation. Of course, our other brain, the computer, operates on batteries. Virtually everything we use is sucking power and the battery is the main source.

If I could have seen the future of batteries when I was a kid, I would have chosen either the manufacture or sell of these masters of our life. I could have started my own company like a Duracell and been a zillionaire.

As I am typing on my computer, I remembered that the mouse and keyboard I am using are wireless, but guess what? They are battery operated. I walk to the porch and push the remote to activate the TV and guess what? It is operated by batteries. These devices are running low on power and after I figure out how to open the battery compartment on the back I will find out that they are either AAA or AA and I’m out of that size. I never have the correct size. I started buying batteries by the bulk but they seem to disappear as rapidly as I bring them into the house. It’s another trip to the store before I can get in contact with the rest of the world and settle back into my remote controlled, battery-operated environment on the porch.