Computer's Down - Oh My!

6/27/2014

Besides family, friends and books, there are two material things that I just can't live without.  Okay, perhaps I could without, but don't choose to do so.

One of those items is, of course, the television.  I look my TV and think reality shows of all sorts are great tv, at least for me.  Storage Wars, Shipping Wars, cooking shows, you name it.  Jeff enjoys some shows, but definitely not the cooking ones, so I watch those when he's busy doing something else.

The second thing I find hard to be without is my computer. After coming home from Chicago last year, I stopped working at my desk in the office that Jeff and I share.  He likes things a certain way and so do I.  Trouble is that we're polar opposites on how to keep our individual spaces.  I'm OCD and everything has to be in perfect order, or I can't work.  Jeff, on the other hand, lives among some chaos in his space, and that suites him.

I have a spare computer downstairs and that is now my "office".  Everything is just the way I like it.  I have my necessary filing folders at my fingertips, notebooks to write in, and pens aplenty.  Both of us like this arrangement.

Yesterday, my computer (horrors) was in need of new batteries or something.  Jeff took the machine away and for a few hours had no lifeline to cling to.  No Ebay, Words w/Friends, Facebook, nada.  I went cold turkey and without my computer, I felt isolated.  I was only "unplugged" for a very short period of time, but waiting to return to the keyboard felt like eons.  

I can remember, and perhaps you do as well, when the first personal computers came out.  Jeff brought home an IBM computer many years ago, and for a long time it sat collecting dust.  I can't remember the name of the word processing software, but it was a nightmare to use.  

Of course, I got better over time and was in heaven when WordPerfect first came out.  At work when I was forced to transition to Word, I once again, felt I would never get the hang of the new software.  The transition wasn't a slow one.  One day I was using WordPerfect, the next Word, with documents that needed to be "typed" that day.  Ugh, it was a very long and slow day.  I persevered, and at the end of my career last year, was very comfortable using Word.

My cellphone, on the other hand, is not that important to me.  I check for incoming emails, most of which are junk and are deleted immediately.  I can play Words w/Friends on my phone, but it's not as convenient as playing on the computer.  With my poor vision, small phone screens are not my friend.  I'm not tied to the phone and half the time I leave home without it.  I don't make or receive calls from the phone, partly because nobody but Jeff even knows what the phone number is.  I, don't even remember what the number is!

I'm going to see a movie today and will leave my cellphone at home.  There is nothing so interrupting as a ringing phone in the middle of a movie or even worse a performance of some kind.  I'm going to see Jersey Boys today, so I'll be able to give you a full review of the movie tomorrow.  Even if the movie is a zero, and I doubt that it is, the music will be wonderful and bring back many memories for me.

P