September 3, 2025
I’ve reached that point in my life where I close my
eyes and take a deep breath every time I’m confronted with new technology. Okay,
well, maybe I reached that point a few years ago. Truth to tell, the only time
I did well with “new modern tech” was at one of my jobs (in the 1990’s) when my
department manager said to me, "here's a computer. Tomorrow, I'm going to
show you how to use it. Today, just play around with it and see what it and you
can do."
I worked in payroll at the time, and my manager wasn't
too happy with what our boss did, but it more or less worked out well in the
end.
The first word program I ever used was Word Perfect,
and while I don’t recall the details of it, I do remember that it was easy
enough for me to navigate. I really liked the part about not having to retype
an entire manuscript from beginning to end in order to produce a second draft.
And the keying required less strength of finger compared to using a typewriter.
In this day and age, the boogey man for me, technology-wise,
is AI. I have never gone to Chat-whatever the hell it is. Nor do I intend to.
The first thing I do when I open a new word document is to close “Copilot”. I’m
an author for goodness’ sake! My words must all be my own, or they are
worthless. Hard line. Full stop.
I do however kind of like the application of AI in the
search engines. I can ask a question, and I get a better result than I did
before AI. As long as the AI applications are happy to shut the hell up and
stay in the background unless I speak to them, I’ll be content.
Writing continues to be a slow process for me. A
combination of the changes that getting older have brought to my mental as well
as physical capabilities, and believe it or not, a second round of Carpal
Tunnel on my right hand. I will eventually undergo surgery for this, but until
then the funny sensations in my fingers impede my ability to type as quickly as
I’m used to. I can’t necessarily feel when a finger is on two keys instead of
one. But it is what it is, and I shall carry on.
September is upon us, and as I mentioned in my last
essay, the last couple of weeks have been chilly ones, comparatively speaking.
I keep reminding myself that sixty degrees Fahrenheit on a day in mid-February
would be considered incredibly warm. However, the one good thing about September
officially arriving this past Monday was that it was no longer August, and I
could therefore, in good conscience, turn on the furnace for an hour in the
morning.
I know it wasn’t my imagination that my husband
cheered when I did so on September 1st.
These last two coolish weeks have slowed down the
ripening of our tomatoes. The last couple of days, however, turned a bit warmer
so I am hoping that those many green tomatoes on our plants have had the
opportunity to grow some in size, before ripening. We’ve already had more
tomatoes this year than last but are nowhere near the bounty of the summer of 2023.
I have a countdown happening in the background of my
mind, ticking down the days until some of our favorite television shows return.
One of our favorites returned mid-summer. We have really been enjoying Star
Trek: Strange New Worlds, this season. Considering that it’s been a couple of
years between season 2 and 3, once we watched the first episode, we were
caught. I still feel cheated that a television season is only ten episodes instead
of the fondly remembered twenty-plus. But that’s life for you.
I look forward to the new major-network fall television
season so that I can fill up my viewing hours with entertaining programming instead
of news. It’s getting bad out there, folks. I’m content being vaguely aware of
events. I do not want to obsess. That’s life for you, too.
At least, it should be.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
