New Skills and Battery Checks

Well, I’ve added a new skill to my list of things I can do. Now I “Skype”. This is actually rather slick. It’s an internet phone. If your computer has a video camera, people can see you. If your computer doesn’t have a video camera and doesn’t have audio, then you can type notes back and forth to someone anywhere in the world.

This is awesome because we have two children currently oversees. Our middle daughter is doing an art internship in Ireland and our youngest daughter is doing a semester abroad in England. I am not sure how either of them is living without their cell phones.

They are on my cell phone plan because mom goes in for texting and sending photos back and forth. Mom also has a national plan with goo gobs of minutes. So basically, I talk an average of 2 minutes a month. They use up the other 998. Too funny.

But, we don’t have satellite phones and we don’t have international calling. I could add it for emergencies. But my idea of an emergency is when someone has gotten on a wrong train in Europe and wound up in East Germany at some unknown city and doesn’t speak any German other than what was learned while watching “The Sound of Music”. I am pretty sure their idea of an emergency is much different and has something to do with hearing the sound of a boyfriend’s voice. On the other hand, both of these daughters are very resourceful and I am sure they can handle any unplanned adventures that come their way just fine. So who needs international calling?

I think I’ve kept up with the times pretty well. I can text message, albeit slowing and in proper English. I know how to use the internet and I am gong to tackle my IPod this week. I have an IPod that I got last March when I bought a new Apple laptop. My IPod is still in the box. This IPod is going to save me this weekend, but that’s a whole other story.

Text messaging came pretty easy to me. I figured it out all by myself while alone in the car one evening waiting for the youngest daughter and her friend. Basically, text messaging is simply an electronic version of something I was quite skilled at in school – note passing.

I learned note writing and note passing in junior high. I carried this skill with me into high school and then it has been forgotten all these decades. Now – it’s back - electronically! Text messaging was a way for me to keep in contact with my daughters while they were in school. I welcomed any contact from them, even messages complaining about how boring certain classes were.

Since my home desk top computer doesn’t have a video camera and doesn’t have a microphone, Skyping isn’t that easy on it. But Skype let’s you trade notes back and forth – chatting. I’m still into note passing and any chat the daughter’s want to have.

I’m excited about setting up my IPod too. I think it’s going to be a saving grace this weekend. You see, my husband is having outpatient hernia surgery. It’s a small hernia and he’ll have a laparoscopic procedure. So, I think all will go well and he’ll heal just fine. But, there will be moments of drama, I am sure.

Actually, there are more likely to be hours and days of drama. I’m hoping that the anesthesia and grogginess lasts a long time. Because, as soon as it wears off, my husband will seize the moment to make academy award pained expressions as he dramatically raises the remote control to change TV channels. He will feebly grasp his water glass and grimace as he slowly sips water and comment that his throat is sore from the anesthesia tube.

On the other hand, maybe it’s not an anesthesia tube. Maybe the docs figured out that if they stuff a pipe down someone’s throat, the patient cannot complain. Hmmm. Wonder if that tube can be left in for a few days....

But, like I said, I am prepared. Any weekend that my husband can’t go out and ride his bike is usually a miserable weekend for me. I get two stories, four walls and Mr. Annoying. But this time, I have my noise canceling headphones. This weekend I am hoping that noise canceling includes moaning groaning spouses. My computer is upstairs in the dining room on the main floor of our house – with a clear shot into the family room where the TV is. But, I have cleverly moved my chair and set up my large flat screen monitor. This will block my vision of his antics so I don’t have to roll my eyes as much.

I am sure that once the moaning and groaning doesn’t get a reaction from my, his next attempt at attention will be to turn the TV up too loud. Make that WAY TOO LOUD. He likes to watch movies with the “entertainment system” turned up full blast. He has been known to have it on so loudly that pictures fall off our walls.

I am prepared for that too. We have a remote control. It needs batteries. We have rechargeable batteries. None of them are charged. Therefore, he won’t be able to turn the volume up with the remote control. He is unlikely to get up out of the chair to turn the volume up. I, of course, will be working away on books and magazine articles at my lovely computer with my headphones on listening to my IPod. He will eventually get bored and fall asleep. Sleep is good for healing. I don’t see a down side to this plan. It’s a win win.

So, the plan is that he sleeps a lot on Friday right after the surgery. Saturday he can watch westerns in the morning and college football in the afternoon. Sunday he’ll have regular football games to watch. Eventually he’ll have to go back to the doctor for a recheck. Maybe I can get his hearing checked while we’re at it. Of course, then I’d just have to make sure that the batteries for his hearing aid are always charged.