Christmas Came Early!

Christmas came early for me with a new laptop! I may have mentioned a similar event in a previous blog a few years, but once again...a new laptop! I learned a thing or two about getting what you pay for with the old laptop, so I spent a bit more "green" for this one and got a Dell. 

When I worked at the courthouse, I got really used to a great computer system...two screens, top-notch programs, great speed. It all came at a great cost, much more than I am willing to spend on a computer system for home. And now I work at Hespe Auto a couple days a week and enjoy the use of a great computer system there also. 

I like the portability of a laptop. We travel a lot these days so it can always tag along. And honestly, it might only go to the couch where I can get comfy, but I love that it can ride along wherever I go!

Mike is now the proud owner of his own laptop! I think he was tired of me yelling at the old computer and threatening to pitch it down the steps or set it afire. It will work great for what he does, which is pretty much surf the internet and do Google searches. And who knows, he might just get handier with it than he thinks!

It hasn't been so terribly many years ago that I sat down to my first computer. What an experience that was! It was a Tandy brand, which I doubt they even make anymore. We purchased it for our family to use while Heather was in high school as a Christmas gift for the family. No Windows, no internet, not sure Microsoft was even a big thing then. But we could type on it, and that's about it! 

Just so happened we got it just about the time Christmas vacation from school began, which was helpful for Mom and Dad. At that time Heather was the only one who had any computer experience, so her services were in high demand since we were pretty green!

It was a sharp learning curve for us. One thing I didn't understand was the button on the keyboard that said "print". Now I thought that was pretty straight forward, just push print and it should print. That's how green I was. I remember hollering for Heather and out of the bathroom came a voice saying, "Be there in a minute!" Poor girl couldn't even get away from us in the bathroom! Ironically, 20 years or so later my mother got her first computer, and I got a frantic phone call with the same problem. "I keep pushing the print button and nothing is happening!" Yeah, Mom, it doesn't make sense to me either!

Then there was the advent of the internet in our home. We had to upgrade the computer since I doubt the Tandy was even internet compatible. By that time our kids all had a pretty good basis in computers and online things, so once again they were our tutors. At that time we just had dial-up access and thought we were right up town. Within the first year Springview offered DSL "high speed" internet, and we were among the first to sign up. What we considered high speed at that time would be extremely slow internet now, but it was definitely an improvement over dial up.

At first it was just a fun hobby, but then the County went online with many of their applications, so I was glad a had just a bit of experience with computers. At first our computers were just main frames that ran the applications that the State deemed necessary to our services, but eventually we got regular internet access. It must have been after 2001 when we got regular internet as I can recall on September 11, 2001, we were glued to the radio at work trying to find out the latest news on the terrorist attacks. These days we would just go to some online news site and watch it in real time!

As things progressed all our operations were accessible online. So if the internet connections were down, we might as well hang a sign on the door and go home 'cus there wasn't a thing we could do for anyone. It's a bit scary to realize that the entire world basically runs on the internet!

Every so often on Facebook someone will post something about getting a million dollars if you could hole up in a cabin in the woods with no cell phone or internet for a month. I'm sure this younger generation has no idea how that would work. Me, I lived most of 50 years without cell phone or internet. I always wonder where you go to sign up for your millions because it sounds like a bit of a vacation to me...as long as I had a huge stash of Diet Coke, books and yarn!

When I got this laptop, I splurged for an auxiliary wireless keyboard and mouse. The main idea of this post is so that I could try them out to see how they work. After 15 minutes of using them, I highly recommend this upgrade to your laptop. By sitting the laptop on the desk and the keyboard on the keyboard tray of the desk, it works just like a regular computer. But if I decide to take it to the couch and get comfy, it will function well in that capacity also. It essentially doubled the usefulness of my laptop. The frustration of trying to type a large document with the laptop keyboard made this investment worth way more than I paid for it!

Now my next project is to try to connect wirelessly to my printers! I never accomplished that fete with my previous laptop, so we will see how this goes. Worst case scenario, I pick up the laptop and walk over to my printer and plug it in. Best case scenario, I can command something to print from wherever I am in the house. We'll see how it goes. My track record with highly technical things is not good!

So anyway, I am hoping this will inspire me to spend more time blogging. That other laptop made the process so frustrating that many times I just gave up after it deleted massive amounts of text with no notice! Blogging is something that just comes off your head at the moment, and it's hard to go back and recreate your thoughts.

So here's to better blogging and spending more time with you guys. And if you happen to hear where you go to sign up for that 30 days in the wilderness with no phone or internet, please let me know. I can blog in advance and schedule them to post at a future time.