Monday, November 2, 2009

today i try to write my blog BUT........

first of all, i finally figured out how to get to the blog! oh, i could get to the blog, it's just that i couldn't open it to put some words in it! on the way, though, something exciting happened that i didn't expect! another blogger put a comment! that was so exciting and apparently it changed my whole computer karma! i was sitting here, at biff's computer, for about an hour....this is true...i kept moving around trying to find out where to add a new post and poof!....an inspirational comment appeared!

computer literacy may be just around the corner for me.....and perhaps the whole technological world may be my next world to attempt. you see, biff, my technologically adept husband has been an enabler....you GROAN! this is true....and my children have been enabling too.....i think the children may like me where they have me, walking around in a paper and pen world! they prefer it that way...if i become less challenged, they will have less time on their tools of choice.

it has been an uphill battle for me. i take it a day at a time! actually, i'm only equipped to handle this tech stuff for about a minute at a time...i've had many failed attempts....it's not that i haven't tried....i swear. it's just that i slip back to my pen and pencil so effortlessly....and oh, that telephone....it has been my tech of choice since the 70's....it made all troubles disappear...with just one dial and the high of a ring....my problems faded away and any loneliness disappeared!

the dial tone was just the beginning....back then, the actual picking up of the receiver, shiny, black and so weighty...with that long coiled cord that reached all the way to the other room. at that point, i was able to fill my soul with the wait, the ringing and the joy of the pick up at the other end! it didn't stop there! it was mandatory to speak to the person at the other end of the line....even if only to properly introduce myself and ask for a friend....that was the tip of the iceberg. the party who answered, had to acknowledge me and my voice, maybe utter a few words, ask me to hold on, listen to that party walk down the hall or to another room and either call to the recipient or YELL LOUDLY....actually WAIT...a few seconds or even minutes and listen for the next sound to indicate if the news would be positive or negative.
positive was a score for my team! the friend would be "right there" or i would have to "hold on"....negative might be something like," she's not home. can she call you back?"....and hearing "she can't come to the phone right now, she'll call you right back." would still be music to my ears and i would wait like christmas morning with the same anticipation!
oh, and the upset to call someone and have a busy signal.....that meant calling again and again, if it was worth the bother to dial again. and it was a big decision to determine whether it was worth the wait....i think many a fine opportunity was missed due to the busy signal! even then, there was no choice but to hang up and perhaps, try again later. sometimes, it grew more complicated....if there was a possibility of getting a call returned, and i had made the decision to go out before the connection, then it was up to me whether or not to leave a message with someone at home to give a message to the caller......i think that's where the game telephone began!
it was a very definitive "NO", if a friend was not home and maybe, a message would be delivered or maybe not. after all, leaving a message was strictly dependent on who took the message. i still have flashbacks to some of the siblings who took the messages through the years. some older brothers would tease and say, "maybe, maybe not.", others were unable to write the information down correctly and that's before anyone had a clue about dyslexia. way back then, the numbers had to be exact, a number did not appear on the screen with the name. oh WAIT! there was NO screen.
in some houses, messages were written on church bulletins, envelopes and scrap paper, never to be seen again.

AND, I AM SURE THAT THERE WERE EVEN THOSE WHO NEVER WROTE THE MESSAGE DOWN AND ACTUALLY TRIED TO REMEMBER THE MESSAGE! THERE WERE NO TIMES RECORDED. IT IS AMAZING THE WORLD BECAME CIVILIZED!

OR DID IT?

today, i still have the telephone situation worked out pretty well. that is because of the latent addiction. it is a false sense of connection...everyone is a t my fingertips....all of my people right there if i need them....as wonderful as having everyone in the college dorm, awake at all hours!
even if i have had approximately 8 cell phones, primarily because of water damage. i do not use the term "water damage" lightly. i get this technological information from the ultimate of all techno people....the man/woman in a knit shirt with verizon printed on it. i have quite the relationship with these "technicians"....i have been through some pretty dire cicumstances with them..these "techs", the emergency doctors of the cell phone world, i hold them in high esteem and realize how valuable they are to us....unless they have the unfortunate task of notifying us of "loss" or "inoperable" or "damage beyond repair". it is then that they become useless to me...i am ashamed to say...i lose respect for them...and consider them to be a part of the verizon bureacracy....not even going the extra mile, with c.p.r. or some sort of extravagant measure....they give up....and no one likes a quitter. especially, when my "whole world is in his hands" and i mean my WHOLE WORLD...my cell phone contains MY people!

that is only the cell phone in the techno world....biff and the kids are enablers, except they are "tough love" when it comes to me and my phone damages. it was just last week that i had to give up on a phone. it was a hand me down from biff...and old (1year old)...a jalopy in the kids world. the phone before that had it's last rites in our family room. it was then, that the family gathered around me to tell me that they just didn't think i could handle a new phone just yet...after all, the wounds were still open....i needed time. i knew the day would come that i would be back at verizon to pick out a new and shiny phone, with the color of my choice...maybe even a phone with some other techno treats! the horror on my childrens faces! they reprimanded me, "mom, you have had that hand me down for less than 4 months and look at the condition it's in....you are not responsible enough to have an i-phone or blackberry!".....this, from the children that carry their own cell phones and i touches. TOUGH LOVE! biff and the kids sat me down and shared many feelings....they were ordering my new phone on e-bay, slightly used, no internet.

oh, i've gone way to far...this is all so personal. if i can touch just one person, by hearing my story, then it will have been worth bearing my sole.

as required, i took one typing class in 9th grade...it made me a nervouse wreck...all of those fingers on the keys, the bells ringing and the teacher timing us all...it was way too much pressure......and the teacher bursting out,"powder puff pinkie!"....her enthusiasm was genuine! mine was not. although, she had a nervous breakdown that semester and i didn't!

computer class was also a requirement in college. it was junior year. we learned about the computer in a traditional classroom, with NO computers. the computers were in the cafeteria building. across the street. we had to go to the computer lab after dinner. that computer, the size of a car, was hard to warm up to. the teacher had wall eye and that didn't help either.

so many attempts were made to help me adjust to the computer age....too many to list.

i still remember biff's mom teaching me "cut" and "paste". that was almost 20 years ago and i'm still so proud when i do it!

i remember when "e-mail" was installed at work and at home...i was suspicious. and still to this day, i do not count e-mail as a personal connection...nope, not for me.
sitting at a desktop, laptop or blackberry will never give me the intonation, the eye contact and reaction that i enjoy! whatever floats your boat!

i have entered the facebook world, kin of begrudgingly....and guess what!! i invite the world to go there. it is very impersonal and very personal all at once! and lots of friends and family use it...i think it actually helps connect the generations in families......yet a teenager used to make mistakes with family and a few friends and now the mistakes are with thousands to see....not so sure about that....but, i do friend the kids, their friends, my friends, family and so on and so on.......................

about technology .....just in the last 2 years, i have dropped one 3 month old laptop, broken 2 new cameras (within waranty, 3 phones, one desktop went to the big white light above ................that doesn't even count the dvd player, the wii player, the digital clock/c.d.player/ with sounds of nature, the ipod, the 5 c.d. changer in the car, the d.v.d. player in the car, the serius radio in the car, the seat heaters, the electric rear view mirror, the electric side view mirrors, the electric rear door opener............................. STOP THE WORLD AND LET ME CATCH UP!

but how can i catch up? my enablers, who shall remain anonymous, always try to teach me....and they are the same ones who want to take away my mouse and the downward spiral begins!

did i mention, my mom, the one who named me little mary mix up, used to have biff call her.....even from hong kong.....to give her a wake up call....in desperate situations.....because she never learned how to set her plain, old fashioned, circa 1980 alarm clock!

did i mention, that because my mom had just received a new cordless phone, and didn't know how to work it...she hung up the phone on us.... the night we got engaged....we had used our last change in a pay phone....the one with the quarters.....we laughed and saved our story til we got home!

did i mention, we bought my mom a cell phone....we returned it.

did i mention, my mom had one of those "help, i've fallen and i can't get up" techno-necklaces.....the local police department knew her because of so many mistaken alarms!

i think you get the picture!

my blog is just the beginning! if i can just find out how to get to it, i'll keep writing!


liz

hip hip hooray!