{"id":3062,"date":"2018-09-05T12:26:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T19:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenhopeessences.com\/wordpress\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2018-09-05T12:39:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T19:39:55","slug":"a-keyboards-last-hurrah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/?p=3062","title":{"rendered":"A Keyboard&#8217;s Last Hurrah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the office the computers are all newly upgraded with improved networking and the newest Filemaker programs to keep our files purring along.\u00a0 A man came for two days to sit and watch the swirly buttons swirl while things were upgrading.<\/p>\n<p><del>I never imagined a life where I would use any of these words including the really imprecise ones like swirly buttons.<\/del><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in my little office area, tucked a bit out of the fray in a corner of the original office building, there was trouble in Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Way back in the beginning of the growing season, the keyboard on my computer stopped making &#8220;m&#8221;s.\u00a0 In a bemused sort of grandmotherly way, I wondered what Grace <del>or me<\/del>, had spilled on the keyboard.\u00a0 Snacks are the price to pay for having her fix computer things for me.\u00a0 She is five and already has an advanced degree in computer science.<\/p>\n<p>Being a bit of a\u00a0<del>disorganized<\/del> thrifty person, I thought it would be <del>manageable<\/del> fun\u00a0 to see how much auto-correct would correct when I typed without an &#8220;m&#8221;.\u00a0 Not that much, as it turned out.<\/p>\n<p>I also tried to play a game of sending emails and doing FB posts that didn&#8217;t have the letter &#8220;m&#8221; in them:\u00a0 Tweaks like changing, &#8220;Happy May morning&#8221; to &#8221; Happy Spring&#8221;. <del>That sort of ridiculous management of a problem that from the start required a new keyboard.<\/del><\/p>\n<p>When I was growing up, I was frequently told this story about a family group who were wringing their hands trying to solve the problem of what to do with a cup of coffee that someone had inadvertently put a teaspoon of salt into.\u00a0 \u00a0When everyone\u00a0 failed to solve the problem of the salt in the cup of coffee, &#8220;the lady from Philadelphia&#8221; suggests throwing out the cup of coffee and getting a fresh cup. <del>This was the full story, I kid you not.<\/del><\/p>\n<p>I never really got why this story was told so often. And who the heck was the lady from Philadelphia?\u00a0 But maybe had I cracked the secret wisdom of this story, I would have grasped sooner that there was only one solution to my dying keyboard. And a simple one.<\/p>\n<p>I needed a new keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly &#8220;simple&#8221; did not end up being the right adjective for what came next.<\/p>\n<p>Now committed to a new keyboard, I started to bug all of the other members of the household to buy this new keyboard.\u00a0 I could have gone to the computer store myself, but I never seem to have the necessary details <del>or know what I am talking about.\u00a0<\/del> I am happy to pay, but someone else needs to translate my confused requests.<\/p>\n<p>No one was biting.\u00a0 <del>They had their own lives, after all.<\/del><\/p>\n<p>I was growing a bit\u00a0<del>testy<\/del> desperate as more keyboard letters were fritzing out, and it was harder to work around the gaps. The letter &#8220;u&#8221; was gone and so was &#8220;7&#8221; then mainstays &#8220;s&#8221; and &#8220;r&#8221; flew the coop. Each day fewer letters worked.\u00a0 What WAS it that Grace <del>or I<\/del> had spilled?<\/p>\n<p>At long last, St. Jim went to the computer place to get a new keyboard for me, but HE WAS TURNED AWAY.\u00a0 My computer was too old for a new keyboard to work on without some system upgrades. <del>Perhaps I had been ignoring those upgrade notices in the right hand corner of the screen a bit too long.<\/del><\/p>\n<p>Five year old computer = dinoasaur.<\/p>\n<p>Weeks passed.\u00a0 There were always other things calling besides FB or blog posts.\u00a0 Weeds for example.<\/p>\n<p>And let&#8217;s face it.\u00a0 People dodge and run when they see me coming at them with a computer problem. Our webmaster, Ben, for example.\u00a0 He probably wakes up every Monday with that Monday morning feeling because he knows that Monday mornings = list from his mother of computer glitches to fix ASAP- Happy Monday Ben!<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, when I did pin down a tech diva or two\u00a0<del>(you know who you are),<\/del> they told me things like, &#8220;It may be too old for these upgrades to make a difference.&#8221; My response, &#8220;Well let&#8217;s find out.\u00a0 Won&#8217;t one of you sit down and push the necessary buttons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I know I should learn how to upgrade things myself.\u00a0 It&#8217;s sort of like changing a flat tire.\u00a0 I kind of can do it.\u00a0 I have actually done it once, maybe twice, but really, isn&#8217;t that enough? Do I really need to know what to do with those messages that keep flashing on computers, phones and every gizmo I encounter with upgrade options.\u00a0 How long can I click &#8220;Remind me later&#8221; and have things keep functioning?<\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t you get it dear gizmo? I&#8217;m needed down by the compost heap.<\/p>\n<p>Then we began to receive messages on the office email: Was everything alright at Green Hope Farm? Where were the FB posts? Someone even wanted to know if I was dead.<\/p>\n<p>No, just technologically impaired<del> by volition really<\/del><\/p>\n<p>The only thing that needs recycling\/burial right now is the keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, that is where the situation sits today. If anyone in my family is reading this post, won&#8217;t you please upgrade my computer? Then I can access all the photos living on my computer and decorate blog posts like this one with photos of things other than technology.<\/p>\n<p>I may let FB go, but I like posting photos on the blog. Please dear tech saavy relatives, please upgrade my computer. I will even give you credit. Here.\u00a0 With a gorgeous photo of the Flower of your choice <del>if the deer have not eaten them<\/del>. Please? Someone? Hello? Hello?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the office the computers are all newly upgraded with improved networking and the newest Filemaker programs to keep our files purring along.\u00a0 A man came for two days to sit and watch the swirly buttons swirl while things were upgrading. I never imagined a life where I would use any of these words including &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/?p=3062\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Keyboard&#8217;s Last Hurrah<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3068,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions\/3068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.greenhopeessences.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}