Old Technology

                The air was filled with a light sprinkling of snow, drifting down only to evaporate as soon as it hit the ground. I pulled into “my spot” alongside Chartiers Creek and turned off the engine. It was peaceful and quiet, a perfect time for reading.

                Picking up my Kindle, I switched it on. I had been reading a story about dreams written by H.P. Lovecraft. I’d be able to finish it before I had to be at work. The opening screen told me that I needed to be connected to the internet to set-up my Kindle. I didn’t want to do that, it had already been set-up and I didn’t need any other changes. I had been reading on it just a couple hours previously and it was working just fine!

                I tried to eliminate the screen; I tried swiping it to the side a couple times with no luck. When all else failed, I went to the old familiar solution…turn it off and on again. Even if I wanted to, there was no internet available down near the stream. The device did show all the various wi-fi accounts available in the apartment building across the creek, but I couldn’t get into any of them even if I wanted to. I didn’t want to change anything, I only wanted to finish reading my story!

                When it fired up again I got the same message. I played around with it for another minute or two trying to get around the prompt. I just couldn’t do it. One more time…off and on again.

                Same thing! In disgust I turned it off and tossed it onto the seat beside me. Luckily, I had just left the local library where I had picked up a book I had ordered. It was a slim volume of Billie Collin’s poems called Whale Day. It had just been released last year. With no problems, I picked up the book and turned to the first page and started reading.

                Now you might think that it bothered me that there weren’t 6 or 7 games in it or for that matter, another 30 or 40 books attached to it. No, I had a book to read and at the time, I had no other needs.  It was paper, it didn’t need plugged in, charged or updated. All that needed to be done was to turn the pages and read.

                I think that only one other person had read this book, it was like new! The pages were still straight, crisp and true. There were no bent or folded corners. No notes or highlights were penciled in to distract me. It was a nice, new, clean book! Good old fashioned technology!

                I started reading the first poem and all my problems with technology were forgotten. The snow continued to fall as I stepped into the world inside of Billie Collins head. What could be better? I love old technology!