This Tenacious Techie--HELLp!

Doodling.

What a difference seven days of technology fever can do for one's confidence. It began on a Monday when I was writing a story.  I hadn't written much when my Microsoft program went blank, not my mind, mind you, Microsoft Word was black and blank.  Of course, I panicked. It's what any reasonable adult who was not born in the computer age would do.  

It became a battle of wills, me against the computer.  What seemed futile was not.  Three hours later, with a smile on my face, Jason from Microsoft was able to teach me how to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Word.  Ha! Little did I know how important knowing how to install and uninstall apps and programs would become with this new generation of computer programs.  (Thank you Bill Joy.)

A few days later I spent the most beautiful day of January inside at the MNVoTech learning how to better use Windows 8.  Just learning that the first screen that comes up with the cubed tiles is called the Start

Just read the directions!

screen was a good piece of information to have, because many directions tell the user to go to the Start screen.  You can imagine the four letter words that can be exchanged when you don't even know where start is. Next, I learned that once I'm on the start screen I can type in my search questions or words without a box to type in. It's rather like typing in space. By now I'd noticed that the other gray headed people around me were struggling with the same issues. What a relief, but no surprise that we are all Senior citizens. It must have been the discount offered that pulled us into class!

Receiving colored handouts, showing every step we needed to learn, thrilled the teacher in me. Critical reading skills and patience are all one needs to learn from technology directions, and they are not my strengths. Luckily, we earned fresh air breaks every hour and a relaxed lunch time with classmates where four of us casually chatted and shared stories not about grandchildren but about our techie skills. The first breakdown came right after lunch when my new friend Rose sent me a note, "Hellp!"  By the 2:00 break my attention span had ceased, and I exploded with laughing frustrations, as did my new friends. The storyteller took over, and I chatted with nearly everyone in the room. We all exchanged personal technology griefs of time lost, worksheets lost, pictures lost, stories lost. My answer to how did that happen or where did it go, "Mayhem did it." For all I learned,I may still have to read the handouts, or do what the instructor said, "Practice what we've done today." There's that word practice.  I practice writing, practice golf, practice weed pulling, so I guess he's right. The good news of the day is that I have new friends, Rose and Lynn, who is a massage therapist.

The very next day I practiced personalizing my Windows 8 program by changing backgrounds, moving tiles, setting up touch control, etc. Then came a new Monday and my printer decided not to talk to my computer. I spoke ever so softly to both machines, pleading that off/on, unplug, check plugs, the little tricks would work.  NOT.  More than six hours later with one hour on the phone to the NPL Virtual Library (free assistance)the two machines still did not communicate, but we knew the problem--I needed a driver/printer update. I called Microsoft again and explained my problem. George said it was an HP problem.  

HP said, "There is no printer installed."  I said, "There sure as hell is and it is sitting right beside me."  Ok, I didn't say that outloud, but I thought it loud enough that I'm sure the techie understood my frustrations. By 8:45 pm on that Monday night I had followed the directions step-by-step to install a new printer program, and add a new device. Like magic the printer shoved out

Scribbled notes.

the, stuck in queue, word document that had started this whole problem. The bonus, is that my printer and computer can now talk to each other wirelessly, at least today they can.  

I don't foresee that I will ever put 10,000 hours into learning computer skills, like Bill Joy and Bill Gates, but at least I can use one with a little more confidence.  I wonder if they know how teach thirty children to read; how to play golf; how to pull weeds; or cook a meal for a hungry family?  

   

The New Addition

A terrified little dog, Princess.

Shortly after moving Jack's mother into an assisted living home, we became the adoptive parents of her little dog, Princess.  But a Princess she was not for us, so began the weeks of renaming.  Dancer was the first tag we gave her, because when Jack asked her to do anything she danced at his feet, for me she hid under the desk.  I secretly named her Heidi!

She was not totally socialized, so she spent many hours under Jack's desk.  In Alleen's home she hid under the bed at night or when company arrived, especially bouncy great-grands.  When I attempted to take her out with Lucy, she hunkered down and made herself a cinder-block.  Hence, I named her Cinder-block or Hunka Munka, neither of which did Jack appreciate.  

Haystack. 

On her behalf and Lucy's, they have managed to get along. Little dog knows to follow, not lead. Little dog also knows to go to Jack when there are problems, just like the kids did?  Hum, is there a pattern here?  The days turned into weeks, and we began to feel ashamed that our little dog had no name.   Then one day after a romp and roll in the dried Oklahoma bermuda, we burst into laughter. There she was, a smiling Haystack.  We stuck with Haystack for several days until we both decided that it was hard to call "Here Haystack."  It had no rhyme or rhythm to it.  


This little dog is also about two sizes larger than good health would dictate, so we've had her on a walking diet.  We only feed her two small meals a day, which she has to eat quickly before Lucy comes in to finish off her meal.  We do our best to walk the dogs daily in the field on North Base, however, the ride over for little dog is stressful, and she screams, cries, and whines every minute of the drive.  I growl,  Lucy paces back and forth, all to no avail.   Hence, we changed her name to Whiny.

Heads or Tails?

Then one day when the sun brought us summer temperatures, she followed me out the door when I called her; she began to run through the yard like she owned it; she took off in the fields with glee and played around Lucy. We both watched her run and simultaneously we said, "Scooter."   She's a Scooter when she runs. We erupted in enough laughter that Lucy ran to our sides, jumping and asking if we needed help and Scooter barked. At last our new addition has a name, a home, and now sleeps on the rug by our bedroom door, not under the desk.   

Scooter

Our children certainly kept us active for decades, and now we consider ourselves lucky to have pets that keep us laughing and exercising.  Our next adventure will be to teach Scooter how to walk with a lease and not cry, and whine in the car.  Any suggestions?