What You Wish For

It all started with my great new low tech watch. I told everybody how wonderful it is and how much I liked the retro analog numbers and just one button to set the time. You get the idea--beauty in simplicity. I must have offended the technology gods, though. We are on vacation in Tucson now. I brought along my great new watch, of course, along with my Ipod I Touch and notebook computer. We got off the plane then picked up our rental car with Enterprise. They gave us an upgrade over the compact I had reserved--we were given a cute Mazda 3. I was happy. As we drove away, I tried to roll down the windows. I discovered the car had hand cranks. When we stopped at the store, I looked for the button to push to lock up. I discovered we had to lock each door separately. The car took me back 20 years! I began to worry that the technology gods were laughing at me.

When we got to our house in Tucson I discovered that my notebook computer screen would not light up. Apparently the inverter which provides power to the screen isn't working right. We had been planning on using it to stream Netflix with our fast internet connection. Instead of relying on a DVR, I was also planning on keeping up with my TV shows via Hulu. Fortunately, I have a service contract for my computer. Unfortunately, to get it serviced, I have to take it to the shop in Renton when we get back. When we discovered that my computer was sick, I thought I could easily make do with my I touch for internet browsing and e-mail. We discovered that my I touch was not working properly and would not stay logged on to our secure wifi. After numerous phone calls, I ended up taking it to the Apple store in Tucson. They very nicely helped me and reset my i touch. We couldn't test our Wifi until I got home, of course. We discovered that it still didn't work. I ended up going back to the Apple store. They very nicely traded my old I touch for a new one. This time the Wifi worked back at our house. The upside to this experience is that I got familiar with a fancy shopping mall I hadn't been to before, La Encantada. I also got to play with the I Pad in the Apple store, which was fun. I especially liked the astronomy app--being able to hold the screen up to the sky and see what constellations are visible. The people in the Apple store were very nice and made the frustrating technology experience as pleasant as possible. The down side was relatively minor. I just couldn't download any audio books to my I pod.

This whole experience made me feel like I'm hooked on modern technology more than I may want to admit to myself. I started chanting frequently, "technology is great, " with the hope that my luck with technology would change. It apparently did. Enterprise contacted me and asked to exchange our first rental with a newer model, a Kia compact that was loaded. I now have new appreciation for the automatic windows and the keyless entry. My I pod has been working well and helps me keep in touch, plus look up the movie times and other attractions here. I miss the ability to access media over a computer and to surf the web on a bigger screen. It's also hard to type--I have to hunt and peck with the I pod. At any rate, I am now careful what I wish for especially when it comes to technology!