I was speaking with a friend one day and he asked me if I ever bought merchandise from Temu.  I told him I never heard of it, so he explained it was a Chinese website with extremely inexpensive items.  He said he got some great values for things he uses.  I looked it up and was shocked at some of the prices.  Of course, I knew that there is nothing in this world for anything approaching free.  Whoever is selling it to you must make a profit.  I decide it must be junk, so I did not buy anything until I saw a drone for sale, for $10.  It had a remote, a camera, and a rechargeable battery.  I figured for $10 I was more curious than anything on what they would send so I ordered it.  The risk not being too great, I saw this as an experiment. 

Two weeks later I got an email that my drone was delivered.  I eagerly went outside on my porch to get my package.  It wasn’t there.  Jumping to conclusions I figured someone stole my very “valuable” package.  I went back and read the email and realized that it was delivered by the USPS.  Could it be in my mailbox?  What package containing a drone would fit in my small mailbox.  Impossible!  But I checked anyway and there was an extremely small package sitting amongst my letters.  My $10 drone had arrived!  After opening the package, being amazed at the size of the drone, and the controller, and having trouble reading the directions, which were only in Chinese, I went to work to figure it out.  I was EXCITED.  I got it together, and lo and behold, it worked.  It took off and went up in the air, and reacted to the controller.  It was just 5 inches long, and when the propellers ran it sounded like a bee.  It had huge limitations, however, only able to go 40 feet in the air, and not too far way.  But it worked and it was fun.  I was hooked!

With my birthday approaching I decided to get myself a gift.  After careful discussions with my oldest son, Jon, my tech guru, I decided to buy the FJI Mini 4 Pro.  A good quality drone for beginners.  It has a range of 12 miles, and can go hundreds of meters in the air.  I couldn’t wait to get it so I ordered it from Best Buy and went to pick it up.  I must admit I haven’t been this excited about much of anything in very, very long time.  I brought the puppy home, went online and watched some beginner videos, and of course waited for Jon to come over to fly it.  He knows modern technology very well.  And he made me feel comfortable.  Of course, the first time I flew it out of my sight, maybe 100 yards in the air, and a half mile away, I feared it was gone for good.  Jon said to just hit the “return to start” button and it will return.  I did and it did.  It landed at my feet, in the exact position it started from, and I mean the EXACT POSITION TO THE INCH. 

I could go on and on about the amazing features built into the electronics of the drone.  (they call it an aircraft) but I won’t.  I am attaching the first real video I made.  I am so excited for the future, learning how to use it.  This will be a long learning experience, with great potential.  Also, I realize that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks and that excites me more than anything.  WHAT’S NEXT?