The Oppenheimer Report 3/25/13

As much as I eschew technology, I am as much a slave to it as the next man. Last week, I received my new Dell laptop in the mail. I’d purchased its predecessor, an MSI notebook, at an Office Depot in Buffalo in 2008, because I needed a cheap computer to use while staying with my parents. That little laptop was a great computer for the money and it served me well. Unfortunately, it began to fail, and the most notable problem was the loss of the “E” key on the keyboard. I do not know where the “E” key went, perhaps Jasper ate it, but when the keyboard started to go, that was my red flag to look for a new laptop. I tried gluing something to the exposed key pressure point, but it was not a successful mend. I had beat on that laptop for five years and frankly I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. At one point, the base even became delaminated, exposing wires and computer parts, and the whole thing was held together with tape and glue. Miraculously, none of this hindered its performance.

I bought my very first computer from Radio Shack, back in the late 80s and it was a laptop with no hard drive at all.  Basically it was a little typewriter with a 3.5 floppy drive and a terrible, unreadable LCD screen. It was as primitive as they come, but when I hooked it up to my noisy dot matrix printer, I began typing these reports on a computer. My first “real” computer was an Acer Acros desktop, which I bought by mail order around 1991, and it came equipped with a 40MB hard drive. These days the average photo file is ten times that amount of memory, but back then it seemed pretty cool to me. For the first time ever I could store the letters and reports I wrote on my computer. Of course, with the added convenience came the omnipresent glitches, and I quickly learned that customer support for computers is anything but. Over the years I have owned a lot of computers, probably seven or eight since I married Shauna, and I have had good luck with Dells. We still have an old Dell laptop which we use in our office, primarily for photo storage. That laptop is over 10 years old, and it is bulletproof. Now, I’m typing this my first report on the new Dell, and it seems to work fine. The only problem – and I loathe buying new computers for this reason – is that it came loaded with Windows 8, the newest version of Windows. With every new operating system comes the struggle to learn about the changes. I am sure this new operating system has more bells and whistles than the last one, but Windows 8 is very different from Windows 7. Even the new and improved version of the word processing software is completely different. As I get older my learning skills have begun to atrophy. Who am I kidding, I never had learning skills.  

A few weeks ago we had a thaw up here in the Great White North, and everyone said that was the end of winter. No so. Late last week we had two healthy reminders that while spring is officially here, so is Jack Frost. Yesterday, my buddy Harvey the snow plow guy and I drove our ATVs over to his farm in a nearby town. Among other things Harvey produces maple syrup, and we went to monitor the sap production. I’d never before seen a maple syrup factory, and it was interesting. The sun was out and it was a good day to enjoy the great outdoors. I know spring is around the corner (and down a few blocks) and I am anxious. The fishing huts are off the lake, the sap is flowing, and it’s time to start germinating some flower seeds.

Final notes. The world has a new Pope, and this one is from Argentina. Pope Francis (not a sissy) is reportedly a Pope of the people and he says he will focus on the poor. Perhaps he should also focus on moving the Catholic Church into the 21^st Century, or making its members more accountable for bad behavior. The Jewish celebration of Passover begins tonight after sundown, and tonight Jewish families around the world will be sitting down to the first Seder supper. This will be the first year in my nineteen years with the Taylor family when that does not happen for us. Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends and family.

                    -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED