Well, stumbling along with my new computer, I clicked on Microsoft Word. I was immediately asked for the product key for the program. I was informed I would be able to use Word 25 times before it was absolutely necessary to input the key. So I got Ed up (he was lying down) and he found the disk with the product key (muttering darkly all the while) and then I had to put on glasses and get the magnifier and enter it bit by bit. Then a 543 page agreement appeared and I was given to understand that if I didn’t agree I should please return the product to the store. I was about to shoot myself when Ed said I didn’t have to read it, just agree. Using this logic, I am sure I have signed my life away.

At every turn I am finding choices I don’t understand and terms I do not understand. Using a computer has gotten a lot more complicated than when I first started. I have a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard. I can’t see the letters on the keyboard. I am lucky I can touchtype over 100 words a minute but I still find myself resting my fingers on the wrong base position and winding up with gibberish. We’ll have to get a tenser lamp to shine on the keyboard. Ed got a super large screen that looks like it belongs on a spaceship. He didn’t need to get this for me but he likes it so why argue.

Meanwhile, changing the fonts in this word program is not simple. You scroll over something and suddenly part of your document is indented and a different typeface. Who told anyone they should do that? Not me. And they don’t use traditional typeface names like Times New Roman and Helvetica – all those names that conjure a gentler time, one full of grace and elegance. I feel sorry for all future generations. I have lived in the last best time and it is waning.

I have always typed numbers using the line at the top of the keyboard. At some point I’ll find a way to disable the numbers feature on the right. I am not an accountant. I use those arrows, not the ones next to the keyboard.
If this is the most boring post you have ever read, please don’t tell me.

I have been asked for a password at every turn and now can’t remember any of them and have always to get tech help. Ed transferred my directory from the old computer but it is Read Only so I have to copy and rename everything. Why do they do that? Who told anyone to make my files read only? I have already read them – now I want to change them or not.

I don’t need this much protection.

Meanwhile, Fay came and went and we needn’t have drawn the shutters but we did. Then when Ed opened them, they were difficult and got stuck and $100 later they are unstuck but meanwhile we had a tutorial on how to get them open without them sticking.

And although Fay is gone, there is a monsoon outside our den window right now, the third of the day. Our lawn is going to float away.

And we came home from a quickie grocery trip Monday and Ed said I should bring the stuff into the house because he was going around to the side to deal with those shutters. Then we couldn’t find his car keys for two days and scoured the house and grounds and were on the verge of calling locksmiths when he found them dangling on a bush. He had said "I can use yours." Oh, ha. I handed him the phone and dialed the locksmith. But in the end it wasn't necessary. However, I don't think it's a bad idea to order another set.

xx, Teal