The Times They Are A Changing
by Phillip Charles DeNise
(GA)
** Posted originally in the Retirement Community **
Back in my PC (Personal Computer) days, I took out my microphone (included with my $700 Gateway; more on this later), plugged it in & started playing around.
I quickly created an audio file with it; no more need for a tape recorder. Before very long, I had entered my Mom's long-distance phone number into the dialer, and was talking to her on the phone (pre-SKYPE days; the year was 2000); no more need for a telephone handset.
I slowly began to realize that I didn't need a dictionary, a thesaurus or an encyclopedia set any longer, and began consciously to try and break all those antiquated old habits; today I have Pandora (no more radio needed), and have successfully broken many of those annoying habits. What will come next?
My roommate and I went into the Gateway Store, decided that, since we were splitting the cost right down the middle, we could afford several upgrades on offer & I even opened a Gateway Credit Account which allowed for monthly payments over time on the $700 total purchase price.
Billy & I left the store with three boxes full of brand new hardware, and had offered no cash in the exchange; the new equipment replaced Billy's old McIntosh laptop I had been learning on, & when the whole thing was set up and connected to the hub a third roommate provided, so we could use his superfast cable internet connection, we were blown away by the difference it had made.
A couple of more years down the road, after having paid off my Gateway Credit Card, and moved across the street, I paid Billy his $350 back, at a time when the 'aging' PC was no longer worth even that much. Billy was very happy to get that deal, as he was fighting his internet addiction & had just lost the rent subsidies from his old roomy.
You also can do without film cannisters, photo albums & 1-hour photo processing; do pretty well without postage stamps, stationery & perhaps pen and pencil; no more coupons, take-out menus or those printed S & P (Standard and Poor's) Guides that arrived in the mail every 90 days. The times... they have changed pretty radically.
I'm contemplating the purchase of a digital camera, so I can better share my domestic circumstances with other online seniors. Has anybody been shopping in STAPLES recently?
