JOAN’S BLOG – THUR/FRI, AUGUST 26/27, 2010 – AD AND COMPUTERS DO NOT MIX!

My husband never got the hang of computers. Odd for someone who was electronically savvy, and knew how every piece of electronic equipment from 1964 -2004 worked. When he was forced to manage and order his inventory, as well as handle all of his business operations by computer in the mid to late 1990’s, trouble began. In hindsight, I believe that is when AD started brewing. He never seemed to remember the steps in running through his programs. He never seemed to remember how he ended up where he was in a program or how to return to where he had been. I found it annoying, and could not figure out what his problem was.

For at least the last 10 years, he has had a laptop computer, which he uses to read and send e-mail and surf the web. That is basically all he does with the computer. At one time I had installed a few hand/eye coordination and word games, but many viruses later, they were never re-installed. His e-mail password is set to load automatically, because he cannot remember it. He knows how to find websites in his “favorites”, and he is able to click from one website to another.

At one time, he caused me enormous aggravation and time consuming repair work by clicking on every message and download that came across the screen. I would look at his desktop and see various odd looking icons, and wonder how they appeared there. He had been downloading every adware, spyware, and program that popped up. Until recently, he remembered my admonishment NOT TO CLICK ANYTHING. A box would appear on the screen, and he would call me to make it go away, rather than clicking it. Good job.

Over the years, I have listened to other wives scream in frustration at the amount of times their AD husbands messed up the computer so badly that it had to be sent out for repair. I was luckier than they were. My husband remembered not to click those bouncing little icons and boxes. Not any more.

Click, click, click, click. Icons all over the screen. Programs freeze constantly. When it does thaw out, due to my machinations that can take hours, everything runs at the year 1980 speed. His laptop is very old in computer years, and I already spent $250 for a new hard drive a few weeks after its one year warranty expired 4 years ago. I have no intention of putting more money into it, so I am looking for a new or refurbished one. He then tells me that he needs a computer that has a LOT of hard drive space and memory. Oh, and he needs a BIG screen. None of those 10” $300 cheapies for him!

I started to reason with him that he reads e-mail and surfs the web – he doesn’t NEED an expensive computer with all of the bells and whistles. I quickly regained my sanity, and told him I would buy him a new computer when one went on sale that I could afford. That is all the information he needed to know. As long as it works smoothly and gets him from his e-mail to websites without freezing up, he doesn’t have to know how much hard drive space and memory it has.

In the meantime, I am putting a big sign on the keyboard, so he sees it every time he opens up the computer. DO NOT CLICK OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING!!!!  I sure hope that works, because I am getting very tired of cleaning up computer messes.

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