Techno-challenged

Apologies to my friends who couldn't find my blog because I didn't know how to post the address! LOL If you know me well enough, you know I'm painfully technology-challenged! And my husband, John, is even worse than me when it comes to computers, so I'm on my own to learn this new-fangled stuff! (Our kids used to be the ones we'd turn to in times of techno-panic, but now they've all grown up and flown the coop, so I have no one to rescue me from looking like a dolt).

I've never found technological stuff easy to digest. I just don't have the kind of mind that finds it easy to absorb and process all the data pertaining to technological gadgets or systems. For instance, it was a major transition when we went from VHS to our first DVD player. Simple enough, you'd think. But not for us! We still had a couple of our kids at home, and they seemed to take to it like a duck to water. But John and me...well...let's just say it was sad. One night when the kids had gone out, we thought, "Cool! Quality time together! Heyyyy..let's watch a movie on our new DVD player!" So we went and got Finding Nemo (telling the Blockbuster cashier that it was "for our kids" even though they were teenagers at the time and were out seeing a "real" movie).

We got home, got our snacks, and proceeded to turn the DVD player on. Then we didn't know what to do next. We both fought for the controller ("I'll show you how it's done"..."No, I'LL show YOU how it's done!") but neither of us could get anything done! Finally John got the disc into the player...it came on...hallelujah! We had picture and sound! And there was Ellen Degeneres' voice in the background, as Darla, singing, "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...just keep swimming..." as we worked to load the actual movie. It's hard to believe now, years later and after much practice loading movies, but we just couldn't get the darn thing to play! For an hour we heard "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming"...heard it so much I began to hate the movie I hadn't yet seen and the blue fish and that song that wouldn't shut up! Mr. I-Know-Everything insisted he was doing everything right and it was the DVD player that was the problem, and I was actually hoping the kids would return home soon so THEY could load the movie for us! By the time we FINALLY got the movie to play, we were mad at each other, had already eaten up the snacks, and were falling asleep during the introductory movie trailers (with "just keep swimming.." playing over and over in my brain like a Chinese torture test). I told you...it was sad.

We laugh about it now, of course, and John made me promise not to tell anyone (so he could preserve his male ego). So don't tell him you read my blog. :)

I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with technology..especially at the rate it is growing. I barely get the hang of a DVD player and suddenly I'm hearing about BlueRay and high def and Kindle books and on and on it goes. Kids today pick up on this stuff so fast, but they grew up with rapid technology. I didn't exactly have to use an abacus, but we didn't even have calculaters when I was in school. And I used a typewriter when I started working 9 to 5. I made pies with "blackberries"; I STILL think in Imperial, not metric; and an Ipod would have been something you read about in a science fiction novel.

Behind the times? Yes, I admit it. But even though technology isn't my forte, I'm not bummed out. How many young folks today can do their OWN spell check (or even know how to spell, period!), or know how to make bread from scratch -- like a true artisan, or have memories of laughing at other people's dirty laundry as they listened in on the "party line" on the phone? No, this old gal still has something to be proud of (well, okay, I'm not proud of listening in on Agnes and Gert's gossip about the neighbours). I'll stick with telling my stories the old way...

On a blog. :)