High Tech, Low Tech

It's getting more difficult for us older peeps to keep up. Last night I upgraded by downloading to the IOS 7, the new operating system for the iPhone.  Maybe I got that wrong. Did I downgrade by uploading? All I know is, I'm totally confused again, just like when I got the bag phone from Radio Shack 30 years ago. Back then I was just getting used to cassette tapes and the Sony Walkman. By the time I figured that system out, we'd moved on to CD's and DVD's and were off and running on memory cards. We have 8 tracks, VCR tapes, reel to reel tapes, and a boxful of Super 8 movies rotting in the basement.

Perhaps I've reached the end of my rope with IOS 7. I was getting pretty good at sending texts and posting of Facebook and getting the blog out, but now I feel threatened. If technology were all I had to worry about, I'd be fine. But when the grocery carts at the SuperCenter act up, I lose it. After all, how hard is it to oil a squeaky wheel?  I look forward to shopping and losing myself in the experience. There's an blessed tranquility between pickles and crackers that should remain sacred, not blown apart by the distracting chugging of the cart.
Just listen.

It's not just that the cart makes a distracting noise. It also has a a auto pilot that wants to return it to the parking lot where it can rejoin the cart destruction derby.

Now before you accuse me of being a fussy curmudgeon, let me point out that the plastic carts at Target are nearly perfect. Someone there cares about them and maintains them. They also forbid them from playing in the parking lot. Their carts glide through the aisles like ice skaters, leading me seductively to shiny eggplants and zucchini squash.

It even matches the store color!

A new cart can be had for as little as $150, which is $50 more than I spent on my first car. But what a great investment. A tranquil customer is a spending customer. A noisy, self-directed cart shatters  the shopping experience.  

Do you get the picture? My nerves, already frayed by the IOS 7 upgrade, explode when the clanking cart  steers itself into a death dive on the Pampers display. How much can a woman take?

It took me 7 months to figure out Netflix. We have something called Roko which may be an alien airport. I don't know. There are seven remotes floating around the living room. I'm struggling to answer my phone. Our new coffee pot is baffling me. 

Please, make the obnoxious self-directed carts go away. 

Otherwise, give me my bag phone back.