Just When Everything is Going Smoothly . . . !

 Isn't it always the way?  Just when you think everything is going smoothly, something crops up to stumble over. That happened to me this past weekend. I struggle nearly every day with the details of living in a mostly computerized world, and in the past felt fortunate that I could depend on Fred for that stuff. He loved computers and all they could do for us, and for him, all the other digital perks available provided a wondrous world he appreciated deeply. He understood the  language. 

Me, not so much. I try, and I thought I had things pretty well under control. After all, it's been a year since he passed, so I should have experienced all the hiccups there might be - or so I thought. But it turns out there are always bumps along the road, and I've now spent a good part of yesterday and today trying to figure out another of those hiccups. 

That said, aside from wanting to tell customer service people - particularly women whose voices seem to be high-pitched and out of range for my ears - to please slow down when they are speaking to me, things went well. I know everyone is rushed; there are waits every time I have to call a business for assistance, and I can accept that - I put them on speaker and go about some other task until the music stops. But it's the rapid-fire speech patterns so many of the customer service people have that I find the most troubling. I have to ask them over, and that must be annoying for them. It sure is for me. 

It seems to me life was much simpler when a bill came in the mail, we wrote a check, and when the bank statement came (delivered by our friendly mail carrier), we could see the charges and the credits and compare them to our checkbook. With a little simple math, we balanced our checkbook. Does anyone do that anymore? Probably only a few of us older citizens even have a checkbook. I don't know how the younger generation keeps track of their finances, but I'm guessing it's all on their smart phones somehow. Or not.

My immediate problems are solved, I think, but I'm not convinced there won't be another unexpected glitch crop up because I didn't know about something Fred did automatically; although he without a doubt told me at the time, but being preoccupied with other things far more interesting to me, whatever he said didn't sink in. I understand computers are here to stay, not a fad, but I worry that one day I'll get completely lost in the maze of the digital world. 

If you are still with me in this long, fairly pointless entry, we are having light snow showers here today. It isn't building up much, but the overnight low was about 10 above, so there is no melting going on, and if the big pond isn't frozen over today, it won't be open much longer. It's very pretty with snow on the trees and completely covering the ground here - I'm thinking we have at least eight inches on the ground. I have taken out my Christmas decorations and plan to go through them in the next few days, deciding what to use and what to discard or just put back in storage. Christmas will be here before we know it!