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26 december 2000 |
santa rests 'Tis the day after Christmas, Denizens, and I bet there's a few people who have downloaded me for the first time on their shiny new handheld devices. If so, hiya! Welcome to the adventures of...uh...me, your favorite girl next door run amok. I am writing this installment from sunny-but-dang-it's-cold Indiana. I drove up from North Carolina a couple of days ago, and couldn't keep my eye off of the car's temperature gauge. From West Virginia to Indiana, the outside air temperature dropped from 15 to 3 degrees. Coming out of midnight mass yesterday, it was one degree. ONE DEGREE, you guys. Now, being one of those sorts who has to learn everything the hard way, I had to feel this for myself. So from time to time, I would roll down the window and stick out my fingers. Then I counted until my hand got numb and had to yank it back in. For the record, I got up to fifteen until I began to worry about frostbite. Yup, road trips with me are a rippin' good time. Alright, so I stayed overnight in Lexington, KY, because my sister and I had planned for me to set up Mom's present the next morning. Mom was leaving for the airport at 10:30 a.m., which gave me a few hours to get in there and get her new Internet appliance all ready. Now, our mom is not technically-oriented. We've been wanting to get her a computer, but thought it would be wiser to get her a "starter" doodad. So I was in the electronics store some time ago, and happened upon something that had "Mom" written all over it. Kelli and I got her an MSN Companion, which is a nice-sized Internet appliance that provides just that--Internet access and user-friendly e-mail. No muss, no fuss. So I got her all configured and plugged into the future, and awaited her arrival. When I heard her car drive up, I opened the door, greeted Kelli and Mom, and we settled into the living room. Mom sat next to me in front of the Companion, with absolutely no idea that it was hers Mom thought that this was mine. She looked at it and asked me what I was doing. "Are you on the Internet? Do you carry your computer wherever you go?" I didn't lie to her. "Yes, Mom, I carry my computer everywhere." She continued to sit in front of the machine while I waited for it to connect to the Internet. "Can I watch?" she asked. Um, sure! We watched while the welcome screen came up, and I just kind of sat there while she looked it over. In the upper left corner of the screen was a message stating, "Welcome, [Mom's handle]! You have X messages." She still didn't catch on. "How can you tell if you have e-mail?" Mom asked. Aha! So I told her that it lets me know of new messages in the upper left corner. See, Mom? It took her a moment, but then I saw realization start to wash over her face. Kelli and I had chosen a Mom-appropriate handle, and she looked at us surprised. "Is this MINE? Oh my goodness!" Yup, all yours. Merry Christmas Mom! E-mail me! Well, she was just completely bumfuzzled--for a few moments. That was, until she realized that she could get on the Internet right now! And holy moly, did she. By golly, Kelli and I had created a monster. Cybermom lives, and now has www.lionessden.com bookmarked for her reading enjoyment, along with Biography.com and all that stuff at the Discovery Channel. Before you know it, I just might have some competition in a few months: www.momandstuff.com. Until then, Mom, don't forget:
So now it's official--the whole family is reading lionessden.com. Not only that, but Kelli's now getting the AvantGo channel on her new Handspring Visor. My whole family has officially entered the twenty-first century with a bang. Me, I'm driving back home today, passing my time the low-tech way. Perhaps it will warm up enough so that I get to twenty before I yank my fingers back into the car. |