On my soap box

On my soap box...

By Ron Thomas

We attended a party last night.. a birthday party for Bonnie Rose, Lois Bellingham and some other old coot. The party was thrown by that wild and crazy couple Jean and Jim Hart. It was a good-un and lot of fun. We learned a lot about friends and neighbors. Funny how when you were in grade school, all through the growing up experience the ladies gathered into one group and the men into another... Things have gotten older but we’re still doing the same thing.

Any way the conversations that come up tend to give me an insight into this article and I hope to present you all with some new thinking and a different way of looking at ... you guessed it ..your computer.

Our generation and those in front of us have been short changed.. The rest of the world is using computers as second nature to do all kinds of things to make life more interesting and livable. While many of us have adopted the idea that the computer isn’t much good for anything beyond playing games, email and an occasional look at a favorite catalogue.

The geeks of our group old folks and those younger coming behind us toward retirement know differently but run into a barrier when trying to stir interest among our segment of folks. There is a mistaken belief that doing things on the computer is hard... That couldn’t be further from the truth. Millions of hours have gone into making the computer extremely simple and making it do many things instead of one thing. The fact is you don’t know the computer and what it can do for you because you don’t believe it can do anything for you so why waste your time... To that I say arghhhhhh!

Thanks to a number of folks we now have a computer lab and we have a small cadre of instructors forming (3) but as time marches on and the younger retirees come to our community there will be more. Courses will start basic from the ground up. You will learn the lingo and then in a systematic way you will get to progress at your own speed.

You can ask that question that you can’t get an answer for because you think it is dumb.. No question is dumb. Your courage to ask enlightens others who have the same question but are more timid to ask it.

At some point the computer will begin to enhance your life, answer your questions, allow you to visit places and events that you only read about, take care of business at lightening speed. Shop safely without traveling to Eugene. Play complex games with other residents instead of against yourself. Learn the ins and outs of email, why you need a security program and how it works. Save all your pictures in an online album or on a CD. Make posters and birthday cards for your group. Run a part time business, Sell and buy on ebay with safety.. set up and shop for groceries on line and have them waiting for you at the store or if enough people learn how maybe they will deliver them too. Learn how to let the computer keep track of your personal finances so that at tax time you press a button and all of your information is there. Create a webblog (Blog) that serves a hobby of yours like poetry, or finding your ancestors or philosophical points of view, Political discussions, religious points, family news.

This attitude changing event starts this week at the clubhouse and it starts basic and it’s dedicated to you. To give you the tools you need for an even brighter retirement.

Of course we all remember the saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”