FACEBOOK ET AL

I am bewildered, and somewhat frightened, because it is obvious that I have, at 92, entered the senility stage of Life.

Thirty good friends have asked me to join them on Facebook. Some years ago I did establish a Facebook account but, seeing no advantage to it, never used it. Now, when I try to acknowledge these requests, they tell me my Password is invalid and the source they give me to change it contains everything except a means of doing so. I may yet stumble on how to do this, but no promises.

Stability and Life do not relate well. I had a good collection of 33, 45, and 78 rpm records, now gathering dust. I advanced to reel to reel tapes and recorded over 200 of them, also now sharing the dust because I went on to build a library of over 300 eight-hour VHS recordings of documentaries, NOVAs, news, and music (the good old stuff not the current noise that pretends to be music). Then they forced me to go to digital, a step backwards as I have difficulty playing my VHS tapes with the now-required 3 remotes and I find 2-hour DVDs are awkward, slow, and limiting. Then I still have stacks of floppy discs, Zip 100 and 250 mb discs that have given way to multi-gigabyte backup drives. I also have over 30 reels of 8mm movie film. I just had 3 converted to DVD with 6 copies for the family, somewhat shocked at the cost. I worry that soon they will tell me I have to abandon DVDs for some newer, more confusing, medium.

Now, I have kept quite busy churning out bimonthly 8-page newsletters since 1986 with many on the internet. (www.971WingAFAC.com).   I also established this blog site.  

My senile mind thinks that this is enough for my declining energy. Joan endorses this view arguing I neglect the numerous chores required by this big house and yard which was just right when our five girls were all home.

I remain delighted to get e-mails from any or all of you (georgesweanor@comcast.net). I was once proficient communicating with semaphore and morse flag codes which did not confuse me as much as the computer world. Admittedly, I did need binoculars to read the signaller on the distant hill. You are welcome to educate me on the advantages of Facebook, Linked-In, and similar means of modern communicating - but remember that I still accept Snail Mail as my stamp collection is hurting because countries issue scads of commemoratives that no one uses these days.

My only old reliable source of knowledge remains books that I started out with in Grade 1.  That book was known as "The Four-Cent Reader". I have been collecting books ever since and now have 2,300. I ran out of shelf space some years ago, but have yet to find, and understand, an e-reader as good and as easy to use.

When I take my discards to the recycling centre I cannot find a bin where I can recycle myself.   Pity.

Ye Olde, past-his-prime, Scribe