Thursday, July 14, 2005

I shall wear my trousers rolled...

Ok, 32 probably isn't really that old (although my husband just turned 35 and has his own copy of _The Inferno_ to prove it), but I admit, I'm not liking pregnancy as much this time as when I did it the first time at 27. And that's saying something, because I hated it then. I'm starting (just starting, mind you) to get the vague feeling that decrepitude is something that might happen to me. Mostly when I'm out in the garden, it is 90 degrees, and I keep thinking how nice it would be to have airconditioning - in the yard. Not exactly sustainable, or low-carbon, but still, my present fantasy.

I'm writing this on a brand shiny new computer, the second cheapest one that Best Buy sells. Now y'all know I'm a luddite, but I actually was once up to speed on technology. My first husband was a computer geek, and he taught me many things, all of which were relevant back when the 486 was the height of coolness. Now, I'm not even sure what the height of coolness *is* (I'm pretty sure that's another sign of old age).

Let us just say that shopping for this big plastic box made me feel really, really stupid. I haven't bought a computer in 8 years - I never needed to, I just inherited from other, cooler, early adopters who needed more memory for their collection of musical downloads or their game habit, or whatever. Basically, my computer is just a big typewriter with an internet connection - I do absolutely nothing cool or imaginative with mine. The great thing about being a lit geek is that I've never, ever felt compelled to put together a multimedia anything. Sadly for my natural cheapness, Eric neglected to disconnect the computer before our sudden thunderstorm, and no one I know really wanted to upgrade, sadly. So now I've got a faster processor and more memory, and I'm sure that will help me type much, much faster. Sure.

Here I am, someone who used to be able to go into a tech store (back before Best Buy existed) and ask knowledgeably for what I wanted, and I go in and say, "does this work?" I feel like a 70 year old confronted with their first modem. Dammit, I was on the old BBS's. I was a girl geek back when there weren't that many. Now, I am simply a middle-aged Mom who gets gently sneered at for not knowing how much memory she needs (it really depends on how prolific a writer I am when I become a better person, any day now.) Old.

All of which is another long set of excuses for not coming out to the blog. What I really need is some guest authors, or something, since I'm simply a lazy, lazy woman. But now that I've got a really cool computer, I'm sure I'll be much better about it. After all, old people, I am reliably informed, have much more free time.

Sharon