I need an 8-year-old to solve the problem
- col-lee-elliot-aging-graciously
- September 11, 2024
- 376
If you haven’t heard me already at my top of the lungs best, I have been hacked! Whomever is getting joy from this adventure is creating the problem they intended and causing me great trauma.
It started with Facebook and has spread to my email, messages and smarter-than-me phone. Many of my 500 contacts have texted and called me to tell me they have received strange messages from me. I am no longer able to access my original Facebook where I have hundreds of photos of my children, grands and greats and messages from students and friends. I am not receiving my emails regularly. I can’t message anyone, and I now have only four friends, one of whom is my son, who can give me information in person instead of online.
I know many are experiencing this same dilemma, and it could just be annoying, but it is interfering with my work as a writer. Beware: When you try to get help from Facebook or any other technical support, you are only led to people who can “chat” with you on the internet, who may or may not charge you and may or may not be scammers looking for information. The hours wasted on this adventure might have allowed me to write a best seller. I think I need an 8-year-old to solve the problem.
When you write for newspapers and magazines, deadlines rule. It’s a must and a given. I have a hard time understanding why, when it is business (IE me calling to schedule an interview), no one answers their phones, and either they never call back or couldn’t if they wanted to because their message boxes are full and can’t receive messages. Sometimes I leave messages several times a day, every day for a week, and never receive a call back. Think what I could be doing with that time.
I’m sure everyone knows many local stores no longer have their own phones. If you call, you get the main branch, which usually can’t help you or recommends you to a number that rings busy for 24 hours. As you age, you value every hour. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did?
On the upside, the local stamp club will hold its annual show next Saturday. Have you ever thought about the art involved in making stamps? Who designs all those miniature pictures? Imagine how one little picture can move a letter from one place to another.
If my house weren’t already ceiling to floor with collections and interests, I would definitely collect stamps — not to dream of ever finding financial gain, but because I would love to own all that art that would fit in small places. Unfortunately, I would feel a need to display all that beauty, and there we go again. Most space is already taken. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to frame a couple of teaching, or music, or theater, or writing, or gardening, or animal stamps, would it?