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Fibro and the technologically challenged

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Posted 5/23/2010 4:50 PM (GMT 0)
So I'm an Old Broad, as many of you know.  I can't twitter, tweak, flitter, poke, hunker, flap...whatever.  I can't send or open a text message on my cell phone. (I can just see you 'youngsters' rolling your eyes!)  The hubby just bought me a new  phone for the hearing impaired.  I answered it last night with the 'alarm' button by mistake and the whole house was filled with the sound of a police siren.  I blew the ear drums out of my son, who was on the other end.  I still have not figured out how to turn on the back window defroster in our car...the heating and defrosting is all on one panel and in heiroglyphics. (can't spell worth crap either).  After showering this morning, I backed into our lovely heated towel rack which was given to us as a gift.  This monster is wired to the wall and looks like a geriatric hand rail in a nursing home.  Now I have a scorch mark on my fat keester...and why is it on in the summer anyway?  The Hubby?  Yes!  Can I turn it off...NO!  Five temperature contols...all these swithches...I have been 'told' that if I concentrated I could learn how to use all these things properly.  I don't wanna!  I really don't!  I wanna pick up the phone and say 'hello'.  I want the defroster in the car to say 'DEFROSTER'.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and this cashier says to me...'the lines are long...why don't you go to the 'do it yourself' check out?"  Are you kidding me?  Weigh the veggies, then punch in the code on the side...scan the ten pound bag of potatoes...Owie and NO.

As I sit here with my left butt cheek up in the air, I guess I have become my father who would throw the remote across the room once he got cable television because it was just too hard to learn all the functions.  Speaking of which...I could not find the remote the other day and who knows how to turn off the television without it?  I couldn't find an off switch on the t.v....so I left it on and went out anyway.  The hubby couldn't find it either, so ha ha. (the remote was under the dog bed, it turns out).  I hate it when the dog  decides he wants to watch animal planet and helps himself.

I am blaming my disability on Fibro.  Yes, I am.  You can't teach an old fibro dog new tricks...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

huggies

Donna

 

Posted 5/23/2010 5:01 PM (GMT 0)
Oh, Donna, I've got the same problem.  I had my cousin ask if I had a wireless router the other day.  How am I supposed to know?  I told her probably not because it was plugged into the wall!  My son, who works with computers, just rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

 

I have a new phone that is closed captioned.  It showed that I had 10 new messages.  I clicked to hear them.  It told me to hold the handset over the speaker, so I did....over the phone speaker, not the answering machine speaker!  I couldn't figure out why it didn't work!  shakehead

 

My daughter was trying to teach me how to text message.  I was alright the first minute or two of explanations but she kept going on and on and on and my brain just shorted out.  She tells me I should learn how to text message.  Why????  My mouth works just fine.  It's just my ears that are bad.  Besides, it would take me two hours to type a couple of sentences, since the letters are over the numbers on my cell phone.  Hmmm....where is my magnifying glass......

 

We won't even discuss remote controls.  Thank goodness my daughter knows how to do all of that.

 

Fibro is tough enough without having to figure out all this new-fangled stuff.  I guess I'm lucky enough to know how to turn on the computer!

 

Ahhh, once upon a time I did have a brain!

 

Sherrine

Posted 5/23/2010 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
I fit in the old broad category and the techno challenged group. Somedays playing a CD
seems high tech. I couldn't get the thingy to open to put a CD in. It took a minute or so before I realized I didn't have the power on. Don't even get me going on the car radio.

I've had my cell phone for ages and still don't use a half of the functions. Just knowing
how to call and answer the phone suits me just fine. Figuring how to use the computer was
big for me, and I'm glad I did. How would I ever found this forum?

Donna, it would be fun to live at your house, but I think I would hurt more from laughing too
hard ! Sherrine I have one of those techno advanced daughters too. It comes in handy!

hugs, Robin
Posted 5/23/2010 7:38 PM (GMT 0)
I guess that I fit into the old broad category, too. I started complaining many years ago, when they stopped making the old-fashioned car radios with the knobs that you turned just so to bring in the stations. I also miss the old fashioned car windows that had the crank that you turned to make them go up and down. To me, these new-fangled electronics on cars just ad a bunch more things to it that can malfunction. Not to mention, the electronic windows on our vechicles never work right in the winter. I can do just fine with the radio in my car, until someone else drives it and changes the station. Then, it takes me several times trying to get it back on the one station that I like. I can do just about anything that I want to with the computer-Just don't ask me to explain to someone else how to do something on it. Otherwise, I never will be able to do it. I also have the sneaking suspicion that I do everything on it the hard way. I could play video games on the origional NES, but have been unable to understand games on any of the newer systems. Also, the way the picture turns and tilts on the screen bothers my eyes and makes me dizzy. I always get a bad case of vertigo.

Cell phones are a sore subject with me. It's all I can do to make and receive calls on them. Actually, with the new phone that my husband got for me, it's all I can do to open it! I do not know how to text message. Making calls is all that I can wrap my brain around. I do not do Twitter, or access the mobil web. I could probably use the camera feature if I had to, but I really do not want to. I really do not care much for cell phones. I liked being able to go places away from home and not having to be bothered with phone calls. Land lines were quite enough for me. It's all that I can do to remember to keep mine charged. Or if it is charged, remembering to take it with me. I have come to the conclusion that I have a subconscious desire to not be bothered with it!

Post Edited (steppingstone) : 5/23/2010 1:53:48 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/23/2010 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
I mess up all the knobs in the car, my computer is even screwy from me trying to figure things out. My 4 yr old grandaughter does some of the stuff for me, lol, she is better than i am at all of it. I did learn to text, but my phone spells things and I get laughed at for some of my messages.....
Posted 5/23/2010 11:41 PM (GMT 0)
here here !

you are to funny Donna.. just love how you make me laugh . real life is great .

my woerk just sent us an e-mail saying if our web site has issues to text our supervisor... LOL What !... they think I have texting . to funny .

 

not everybody has texting or even wants to have it. .. nope not over here . .

 

Love and hugs .

Posted 5/24/2010 1:12 AM (GMT 0)
Yep, another old broad here! My DD can do anything w/ a computer and cell phone. I hesitate to do things on the computer for fear of screwing it up beyond repair. My DD helped me find this site 3 yrs ago, helped me set up to get on, showed me how to do the stuff to post. If she leaves, I'm toast. shocked   My DH gets on the computer and hits the wrong key and we get a bill. OMG

A few yrs back my family got me a cell phone for Mother's Day. My DD set everything up and showed me how to text. I had a pay as you go. I don't want to talk and waste my min, just wanted to text to keep in touch w/ my children as they were all over the place. This yr my husband needed to get a new phone and wanted me to get a new one. I resisted for awhile, so afraid I wouldn't learn how the new one works. I finally got another one, also pay as you go. My DD set everything up, again. I also have a song for each of my family members, so I know who is calling - in case I'm driving while the phone rings.

25 yrs ago, I set up our 1st VCR, I was so proud of myself. Every one after that has not been set up by me, just can't get it. My DD has done it. She also installed this computer.

I love the radio playing in my kitchen and my car, I also can't set that up - again my DD. She has programmed all the stations for AM and FM. I basically play 2 stations, but I'm ready just in case.

I have always said I'm not really buggy about gadgets in the car. As long as my heater and radio work, oh yeah and the breaks, too, I'm happy. This car I have now has electronic windows, at first not too excited. I have had the worse time w/ my arms, shoulders, etc. and just pushing a button has been such a blessing. Now my list is windows, radio, and heater - and yeah, breaks.    tongue

I don't watch much TV, my DH loves the TV, he loves the remote - no, he can't figure out all the buttons, either. He is forever losing the control tho, it usually ends up under the sofa cushion. If one of the children set it up for some other function, we have no idea to get it back to TV. This is sad, I'm beginning to think we need a keeper.

I sent an email to my niece a few months ago, she was so excited. I usually write out a long letter - have a hard time w/ writing anymore. My niece said it was so nice that I decided to join the 21st century. She doesn't know that my DD set that whole thing up for me, too.

Donna, good topic and I just love your phrasing. Funny, funny lady. Hope your backside is feeling better!

God bless.  Alice.

 

Posted 5/24/2010 11:59 AM (GMT 0)

Right after I posted this yesterday, I decided I would help the hubby with some yard work.  He got me this lightweight (4 lbs) weed whacker for Mother's Day.  For Father's Day I think he is getting a DVD of The Bridges of Madison County or a box of tampons...can't decide which.  Anyway, after and extensive conversation on how to adjust it to fit my grasp, getting the perfect angle for my comfort, how to slide the handle up and down...I got it to the back yard and couldn't get ONE of these features to work!  I pinched my finger in the sliding handle...started swinging the stupid thing around at an angle that made the weeds fly in my face...I lasted ten minutes.  I hope he truly enjoys my Mother's Day Gift...I know he was trying to be thoughful as I keep expressing the desire to help him with the yard and he just wanted to accomodate me.  But I finally think the yard work days are over. I'm hunched over like Quasimoto today, and of course...OWIE.

I'm buying a goat.

Huggies

Donna

Posted 5/24/2010 1:22 PM (GMT 0)
Ha ha...you ladies are so funny! I am the same way (yeah, yet another old broad here) my kids think it's so funny that I can't work anything. Thank god I have them to show me how. Posts like these are what first kept me coming back, it's so wonderful to get a good laugh sometimes, even if it is at our own expense!
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