Dear Ones.
When
generations gathered around our kitchen table for birthdays and holidays, the
talk eventually turned to the immutable fact that “they just don’t make things
like they used to. Plastic is what they
use nowadays.” Grey haired heads would nod
in agreement. Being a younger
whippersnapper, I’d eye my dishwasher and self cleaning oven and quietly chuckle.
Fast
forward a few (okay quite a few) decades and I can hear myself echoing those
same sentiments. Oh my, those old dears
are no doubt laughing their halos off somewhere out in the cosmos when I bewail
all the new technology that swamps my brain.
Take
the washer (I wish someone would). It
has a plastic button to turn it on and it sticks at times. Once on though, the lid locks up like a dog’s
jaw when you want to give him a pill. Leaving the lid open while you check the
clothes hamper is not an option either.
The machine empties out with the lid open. My old machine was much simpler. It had metal
knobs to turn on and off and I could open it any time.
Moving
on to my new printer. Let me be
clear. I’d jolly well like to hammer and
beat it into small pieces. Where to start.
That’s my first complaint. Starting
it takes longer than my dad’s old Plymouth
Living in an icon studded world is stressful
for word folks. I yearn for dials and
knobs that are easily identifiable.
Instead there are pictures that befuddle me. My DNA is not
wired for icons. Take lips. Yes lips.
When I see a picture of lips I immediately think of lipstick or kissing. How wrong is that? Let me explain. A few years back I bought a GPS and the clerk said all I needed to do was
pop it into the car and plug it in. I
should have been wary of anything that simple but I’m an optimist and off I
went, plugged it in and wham, he was right.
It was very easy if you were Polish.
That’s right. Every thing came up
in Polish. I hit all options but failed.
So short of learning Polish, I needed help. A phone call brought clarification. Go to Menu and hit on the icon showing lips. Excuse me but why lips I asked? That’s the option for language. Of course, anyone knows that except me. I hit on lips and up came the language
selection. So easy if you’re an icon
person.
So
it goes as we wade through oceans of new technology and try to stay afloat
which I manage…just barely. One thing
gives me satisfaction. The fact that a
few decades ahead there will be oldsters gathered somewhere in a Starbucks
sipping their decaf lattes and complaining about the state of the new
technology and wishing they could have more naps and less apps.
Survival is a succession
of temporary measures”
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