A Lesson in Patience

I remember not so many decades ago when I got out into the workplace and kind of snickered inside at the older folks who thought if they pressed the wrong key on a computer they'd blow up the city or something horrible. Well, folks, I think I've just about become one of them people I used to think were so out of it.

Consider this. I don't have a cell phone. Don't want one. Don't even know how to use one. But now let's talk cameras. That's one area where I stay fairly current, at least as far as money allows. So my camcorder broke after five years of faithful service and I went to Best Buy to purchase a replacement.

My sister made the mistake of walking through the door with me, if you know what I mean. She's been paying through the nose for RoadRunner Cable for months now -- with NOTHING hooked up to it! So I suggested she come along and maybe we could get an ethernet card or whatever we lacked to hook up an older laptop to the cable modem.

I casually suggested she might look at how cheap the laptops are these days. About four hours (and several mixups in charges, software, and a variety of other evils) later we left the store with my video camera, a laptop, laptop case, a 20" television and a few other bits and bobs. Funny, right? Have you all ever dealt with Best Buy? Watch 'em closely, particularly if you purchase one of their packages because they usually don't deliver the goods they promise for the price they quote. These major mixups have happened to me on nearly every occasion I've dealt with them. But I will give the folks yesterday credit - at least the young woman who finally sorted it all out after about four hours of standing our ground. She was a good employee and because of her my sister and I might actually go into a Best Buy store again sometime. She restored some of our faith. I'll just keep my toes crossed and hope for the best.

So here I am typing away on my sister's new laptop -- after several hours of trying to figure out how to hook up a router so we can both travel around the house on our laptops using the internet. I'm looking forward to enjoying a Coca Cola on the front porch looking out over the mountains while checking my email tomorrow morning. Sounds good, huh? I feel like I gave a little too many pints of blood to get to this stage of technological advancement, though.

I suppose the thing that got us through both the Best Buy ordeal and the internet hookup was a goodly measure of patience. Don't know where mine came from - I'm too ginger-haired to have any patience - but I'm thankful it was there to draw upon. Must have been that troupe of angels watchin' over me again.