Tuesday, December 15, 2009

blog or christmas card?


sometimes, it seems that i just can't get my hands on the computer....literally. it has taken me quite a while to finally sit down at this computer...it's the newer one in the family...and it is the most desired. i try to get my time on the computer when i can have it all to myself...when everyone is out of the house!

i had a few moments this morning to try to download or upload or whatever my most recent photos from my camera....simple you say...just a few minutes. i found the camera cord in the car, where we had it stored from a weekend trip where we thought we might need it....like we couldn't wait til sunday night to put the pics on our computer. instant gratification generation. i plugged in the camera and the computer.... i found the file...where i was hoping for the pics to magically travel....thinking i would quick make a cup of coffee while i leisurely waited.....and waited and waited. i put the coffee down....i looked at the computer and nothing....nothing.

i picked up my cell phone...it was my son, t.j.....he was waiting for me to deliver his history paper that had been printed out earlier this morning...but, it took too long and he had to run out the door to the bus.....pleading, as he ran down the "school bus path" to the bus....."PLEASE DROP IT OFF BEFORE LUNCH! THANKS!".....please and thank you! on the run! i would have done anything he asked...just hearing those magical words....on the fly! so, by picking up the phone, my whole agenda changed....i put my computer confusion on hold, put the dogs in the car, started up the car, put it in reverse and.....i had to put it back in park so that i could run back into the house....to get the history print out! i dropped it off at the school, where the wonderful receptionist was waiting for t.j.'s paper to arrive....as though i was a medic delivering a kidney!

i had a quick chat with the principal... wanted to thank him for something....via e-mail....until i had a technical glitch...so, i used the spoken word to say "thanks".....like the old days.

i began driving, with the dogs, down to town.....to get a HOT cup of coffee. as i began my drive, i realized that i had missed a "tweens" meeting that had a woman scheduled to speak about.....organization! i guess that's an indication of how much i needed to be there!

i got my coffee and it was hot! i took the dogs to the beach....the coffee got cold...but the day was beautiful!

i came home to get "organized".....i sat at the computer to try again...before my daughter arrived home on the schoolbus....and would no doubt be hovering to get her time on the computer. the phone rang...it was my daughter....she had walked to her middle school with some friends to visit their old teachers....she needed a ride home. i went to pick her up....tried to call her brother, who was on his bus ride home.....my cell phone battery was dead.

my daughter and i arrived home. i let her get going on the computer. i took care of some stuff around the house...non techno. when grace finished up, i gave it another go....i could not even get to the file....when i realized that my computer genius children couldn't even save me, i finally called my husband, on his cell phone...i pleaded for help...he tried....it was painful for both of us. he said he was at the hotel, dropping off his boss....he would be home shortly to help. a real computer crisis intervention!

after dinner, with my husband in the room, i began another attempt to get the pictures on the computer. things happened.... so out of control. my husband, laughing, told me that when i called him earlier.....his boss had to get up and walk away for a minute.....not because the phone call was a problem.....but, because it reminded him of the same conversations he and his kids have with his wife.....computer coaching over the phone is like trying to land a plane from a control tower in the wrong airport!

after everyone went to bed...in the wee hours....in the peace and quiet....it happened....i circled the plane around and around....found the right airport....and landed my airplane. the pictures were in. the eagle had landed.

now, why did i want them in so badly? was it for my blog or for our christmas card? too bad i didn't get to that organizational meeting.