Huh? Cut and Paste?????

by
Patti Dickinson

I've been at this blog for six days. But I have CHECKED the blog six hundred times. You should see me when I get on the blog and find out I have a new "follower"!!! And when someone leaves a comment? There aren't words.....

As one of four authors of the soon-to-be released book, Four Ordinary Women the blog is a way to "extend the experience" to our readership. The blog address will be on the book jacket. The book will be at the UCLA Book Expo in late April, and at the NYC Book Expo in late May/early June. It is a new way to market yourself.

My computer skills are minimal (okay, they're non-existent). My brain just doesn't see the logic of how computers work. Take the cut and paste function. It usually takes me three tries. The first time, I have the cursor in the wrong place, so that what I am trying to paste winds up in the address line. Ooops. The second time, I have to figure out whether you highlight before you click on "cut" or after. My brain can't hold on to this information. It's easier for me to retype than cut and paste.

I am proficient at forwarding, emailing and deleting. I can put stuff in the trash can. And I know how to empty the trash can. I still lack consistency in making folders. My husband is a computer whiz kid. He does his best not to be exasperated when he has to talk me through all kinds of computer difficulties when I am at home and he is at work. He thinks I know where the browser is. He thinks I know how to "refresh". I know neither of those things. Refresh? Isn't that a squirt of perfume and a quick swipe with the lip gloss? He doesn't believe me when I say, "I didn't touch anything...how can I mess the settings up when I don't even know HOW to change the settings?"

Passwords. That's a whole 'nother issue. I have fifteen different passwords. NONE of them are my social security number. At least I know enough not to do that. My husband considers it an intellectual challenge to figure it out by trying different numbers. Not me. I try one number and if it's not right I am ready to throw the computer under a moving train. (And it's NEVER right on the first try!!)

We have this on-line banking thing where we can see a list of our accounts after typing in two different sets of passwords. If you type even ONE wrong letter/number, it then puts you through a series of questions. My mother's mother's aunt's maiden name. Or the first car I ever drove. Do they mean the first car I ever drove, or the first car of the person who set up the default questions. So I have to call my husband, and get him out of a meeting to ask him what the first car he ever drove was.....

No wonder he puts his phone on silent.