Mom Goes Electronic

Allow me to preface this blog with a brief introduction to Anna (mom) and her relationship with the electronic / internet age.

I got mom to embrace accessing her email on the internet about two weeks ago. She’s had a cell phone for many years, but only uses it for voice. She actually tried sending a text message a couple of times, but she still gets confused when someone sends a text to her and she has to figure out how to retrieve it (same with picture mail). Mom is definitely challenged when it comes to the internet and some of the new gadgets available to consumers today.

Still…..she is willing to learn. And last weekend – she really surprised me when she decided to buy an MP3 player and a digital recorder! We were in Best Buy together and she wanted to look at them. We had the most charming young man helping us. He was so patient with all of mom’s questions – showed her everything they had to offer. We mentioned that we were planning a trip to India and while he was showing us headsets, he made a comment to mom saying “Holy Cow!” and mom flew back with “Yes – they are Holy in India!”. That was it! He never got over how quick she responded with that comeback.

She ended up getting a SanDisk MP3 player in RED with 2GB memory. It’s different than an iPod because it’s made by the same people that make the SanDisk (SD) cards we use in cell phones and cameras. With this player, you can purchase SD cards that have audio books or music already loaded on them – or you upload music thru iTunes. Mom’s very excited about it!! She’s buying an audio book about India to read on the plane and I’m showing her how to upload her own music online. Go, Anna! Go, Anna!
She also bought a digital recorder that’s about the size of an iPod to record our tour so we don’t have to try and keep up with taking notes manually. It works on 2 – AA batteries (no tapes) and you can upload the recording to the computer. Very cool!