IF YOU GOT ONE, USE IT!

I got a business call the other morning, and on the other end was a gentleman about my age, maybe even a little older, if possible. The purpose of his call was to tell me he had received all my e-mails except one, because he couldn’t open it. I told him I had resent it and that he should now be able to open it.


“Oh! Fine, I’m not at my computer right now, but when I get back I’ll have my grandson open it.”

A businessman with a grandson that opens his e-mails!

You know the old saying: “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” That statement applies to either vacation days or something else I won’t mention here. It now should apply to grandchildren. Yes, have your grandchild open your e-mails.

Now I don’t have a grandchild, as far as I know, so I have to open my own e-mails! Yes, that is right. Anyone over 60 who is opening his own e-mails is at a lost for grandchildren and help. I feel so outdated without a grandchild, so all alone and fragile!

I occurred to me when the gentleman made his announcement, that people of my generation are kicking and screaming the last ten years as we go into I-pods, I-pads, Kindles, Bluetooths' (or is that ‘Blueteeth’?), blackberry, laptops, and the latest cell phones. I remember when a laptop was a napkin! Even the simple adventure of watching TV has become more complicated, with; Flat screens, tubes, plasma, LCD and DLP, plus I think HDTV.

All this troubles me. My concern is soon the food industry will start to upgrade and reinvent itself, and because I am over 60, will starve to death! And what about the car industry? They seem to be going the way of computer technology, with dashboards that should be displays for Times Square on a summer night. There is so much on the screen, which at one time was a few gauges with needles, is now digital in all kinds of colors, things appear and disappear, and if you accidentally lean on your steering wheel, you raise/lower or turn on/off your radio.

A phone in a car was a marvel, now it is illegal to use while driving. Meanwhile I could never fit a phone in my pants pocket, let alone a shirt pocket 15 years ago! Where would I put the cord? Now, what is supposed to be a phone is everything else as well! You can call, photo, text, and use it as a flashlight for God’s sake!

But I do not despair: help is on the way. My neighbor has two kids about the age of what my grandchildren should be, I think I’ll borrow them next time I turn on my computer.