The Learning Curve

My learning curve had a spike in it when I figured out how to get a photo on here but now it has flattened out again. I am trying to add to my side bar links to blogs of friends or other interesting sites and that isn't coming along to good. I've gone back and forth, to and from the "help" directory and, while I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out, it seems that the older I get the easier I confuse. I am determined not to become my mother! I recently spent 2 hours just trying to teach her how to use email. She is 87 and she was once a very intelligent, intimidating woman. She was a CPA when women didn't do that. They were bookkeepers and assistants to CPA's. After I returned home from my visit with her, I sent her several emails, as did other family members. I never got any response to them. Finally I called her and asked her if she had checked her email lately. Her response? "I haven't turned on the computer since you were here." After a little more conversation, she decided she shouldn't be paying for broadband service she doesn't use and maybe she will give the computer away. The once intimidating woman is now intimidated by a computer.

But.....don't write off the senior citizens who prefer the manual way of doing things. I recently read a series of books by Terri Blackstock, the first of which is called "Last Light". In this book something happens with an exploding star that causes everything electrical and electronic in the WORLD to stop. Permanently. Cars won't start, watches don't work, no electricity, TV, phones, no communication at all. Everyone is thrown way back from the civilization they once knew. Most people had no idea how to survive. The old woman in the neighborhood showed her neighbors how to dig up their yards and plant vegetables, dig a well for water, compost what they could and bury the rest of the trash. There's way more to the story but it is very thought provoking. The banks couldn't open, people couldn't get their money. I don't even get paper bank statements anymore. I know I would be scrambling along with everyone else if it happened. Older citizens had to teach the younger people that they could survive and have a life without all the "stuff" they were used to, and you had to WORK to survive. I highly recommend the series.

Well, it's time to hit the donkey trail.