Modern Life

Last night's episode of "Modern Family" was hilarious. Especially the part about the family with the 3 kids who made a contest out of going cold turkey from any kind of electronic gadgets. You know, like cell phones and texting, IPads, video games, etc. One kid complained to her parents that she wound up with a B instead of an A on her school report because she had to use the family's (somewhat) complete set of encyclopedias instead of the Internet to do her research.

On Facebook, I notice more and more of my friends are posting from their IPhones or Droid phones. They are posting almost every move they make during the day including pictures of funny things that happen, when they actually happen. Frankly, I'm a little jealous. While I am not necessarily technology challenged. I'm definitely travelling in the slow lane. We just got a laptop last year. And my phone doesn't have those qwerty keypads for easy texting, so I have to do it the old fashioned, slow way.

But it is enough for me. We finally got the laptop because we hated not getting emails, etc. when we were on vacation or away from home for the weekend. I was so excited on our vacation in May to be able to post pics from Disney World for family and friends.

Then we decided to get into camping this summer. That's when the laptop really became a superstar for me. I could keep up with emails and Facebook. I could watch DVDs or access my instant queue on Netflix. The possibilities were (almost) endless. On our first trip it helped pass time after dark before bedtime.

But on the second trip, I discovered around dinnertime on the first night that I had forgotten to pack the little connector cable for the MiFi thing we have from Verizon. I really started to freak out. Lord, what would I do after dark? I would have to resort to simple, non-Internet Solitaire. Horrors! No Facebook. No Netflix. I would be bored out of my mind. I vowed to go get another cable the very next morning. Surely there was a Verizon store somewhere. But then I realized we were on the Eastern Shore. Not exactly a bustling metropolis. I knew it would be hopeless to find what we needed. Sigh...



But then, like the Grinch finally getting what Christmas is all about, I realized I had a great CANDACE BUSHNELL BOOK with me. So after dinner and after dark, I borrowed Hunter's head lamp, fixed a cocktail and situated myself on the air mattress to read. And amazingly, I survived the night. And actually had a very relaxing evening listening to the sounds coming from around the campground. Between the book, the nightcap and the peaceful location, I drifted into a very relaxed sleep.

However, the next morning I woke to find Hunter fiddling with the laptop. He excitedly announced that he had gotten the Internet thingy to work without the cable. Oh joy! Oh joy! I was back in action! So there it is, I'm guilty as charged and hopelessly hooked on all this technology as the next person. And, by the way, I'm looking into one of them Droid phones.