old school, new times.....

Today, everything comes with a set of instructions; which I do believe are available only to confuse matters even more.... well, at least for me anyway. In reading the manuals, I find myself hopelessly lost looking for the right buttons to set, or correct plug-in spots... or anything that makes me think outside of the book. Somehow Murphy's Law applies to me whenever I try to do anything mechanical. It's information overload to me, and I'd rather just have someone else do it while I watch. Hand me food, a recipe and a pan, and I can taste it before I even start to cook it. Hand me anything mechanical, and I'm just a blubbering fool. I have to read the instructions over and over, and still have no idea what to do to achieve the results I need. Everything is mechanical, and I'm still "old school" in some areas.

My husband laughs at me because I do not carry an ATM card, nor do I have a debit card. I still write my own checks (which even the checkout guy at the grocery store pointed and laughed at me about), and still reconcile my checkbook without going online to the bank. To my defense, at least I have Quicken on my computer, and no longer have to do it by hand.... so I've achieved some baby steps there, and my checkbook is always balanced to the penny!

When I first moved to the city in 1983, a young woman was abducted in a rather affluent part of the city. Part of the journey she had to endure that night was a trip to her ATM, as they tried to rob her first. When she fumbled and couldn't remember her passcode, they proceeded to tease and torture her.... her body was found a year later in a shallow grave. This scared me to death.... literally! I just would not get an ATM card, and to this day, still don't have one. I like writing out my own checks, and find that I force myself to write down the entry (except for that little $800.00 mistake I forgot to record ONE time). It may seem a little silly and time consuming to others, but I'm comfortable with it.

If I don't know how to do something, I have no problem asking anyone I know how to do it, or if they'd do it for me. This would include anything that has to do with electricity, plumbing, carpentry, sharp objects (except knives), and gas run vehicles. Show me what to do, and I can catch on pretty quick( somewhat), but if I had to read a manual, I'd get lost immediately. Or perhaps I just get bored fast..... my mind wanders, and I can't understand why it just doesn't work when I plug it in and push the "on" button. All this extra reading is taking up valuable time! It's not that I don't like to read, on the contrary, I just don't fare well with instruction booklets. Most times they have so many steps and paragraphs and pages that just run on and on... and sometimes not "on" enough, so I am left hanging.

When I purchased my Explorer back in 2001, I was requested by my husband to read the manual that came with it. Let me start by saying that I've never even cracked the binding of it. I just looked at him and laughed to myself thinking: Like Hell! If there's no real story, or something better to read in there, you won't catch me doing anything with it but store it in the glove compartment. He's the mechanic, not me, so I make sure it is available for him to refer to when it's needed... and I can help with an oil change. This is where we differ on issues. He can make heads and tails of the meanderings, but would forget where he set the book down; I can't decipher the book, but know where he left it.

Even my cell phone is nothing fancy. It does not take pictures, text message, or do anything other than make and take phone calls.... although I do like the feature that allows me to plug in phone numbers, saving me the time of dialing. Only problem is, the directions on how to do it have long since left my mind, and I'd have to read the instruction booklet to revise any new entry's. At this point though, I'm just relieved that I have a phone for emergencies and will leave it at that.

Maybe one day I'll rebel against my angst of all the technology "editing" and update the phone, read the Explorer manual, and go online to do banking. I will have to make sure I have someone around me that can show me the steps so I can take notes for the future forgetfulness I know I will encounter. Although I know I am too young to have "senior moments", I am beginning to experience them in my 40's.... or perhaps it's all this information overload with way too much to remember.