Computer Curmudgeon

I’ve always been more than a little suspicious of horsemen who seemingly spend more time with their computers?and cell phones than they do with their horses.? Of course, this has mostly to do with the fact that I’m?generally uncomfortable with anything mechanical, much less technical.? I never really conquered the 20th century and now I have to contend with the 21st.? My blog entries have become more sporadic as the number of key strokes I need to?post it have increased, but I guess I’m going to have “put on my big girl pants,” as my (very young) trainer says during those special moments with my mare, and deal with this most recent challenge.

I’ve always preferred horses over cars and motorcycles, sail boats over gas-powered boats, board games over video games.? I now own a Kindle, but that’s to keep the poundage down for library books that I tote onto airplanes. I think I was the last kid on the block to own a cell phone, although I did acquire a bag phone for my truck well ahead of the pack.? That was to increase the safety factor when driving the horse trailer.? I?got that bag phone while my daughter was in middle school, and it was still in the car she was driving after she graduated from college — by that point a true antique.

I was a bit wary of all the people who had a cell phone welded to their waists, and I was spooked by people walking around seemingly talking to air but really through a handless mike.? I was finally forced to get a cell phone because I was always getting?lost in airports, and indeed the first call I ever received on a cell phone was someone looking for me on the departures level, when I was looking for?them on the arrivals level.? I still have a dumb cell phone, not a so-called smart phone and, while I’m told I can get online with it, I don’t have the foggiest notion how.

I never (well, rarely) carry a cell phone when I ride, although that may have more to do with the fact that my barn is in cell-phone hell, although even?the NIMBies there are pretty much ready to give up now and allow more cell towers to be erected.?? But, I’m willing to admit that carrying a cell phone out hacking is a good safety measure.? At shows, though, I’m a pushy mommy-type who tells people they shouldn’t carry their cell phone in the small of their back in case they fall off, because they could bruise their spine.? I’ve even seen some people with two phones, especially now since they can pretty much access the internet on an iPhone anywhere.?? I heard recently that a current Ford F150 has more technical capabilities than the Mercury capsule of the early ’60s.??Heck, you could probably operate?a space shuttle now with just a cell phone (if we still had a space shuttle).

All this whining doesn’t have so much to do with me being a technophobe as it does with my concern over internet discussion boards.? Again, I’d rather be riding a horse than a keyboard, so I am inherently leary of anyone who spends long hours online, unless it’s somehow work-related.? After 40 years as a journalist, including college teaching stints and a period editing an editorial page with legions of letter writers, I appreciate when there is a layer of filters and fact checkers between someone’s flying fingers?and the send button.? What we used to whisper across stall partitions while braiding at a show now gets hollered around the world instantly, just like I’m doing here.??Sure, tHere’s an inherent irony to saying something?like that in a blog, but that’s the nature of blogs which, by definition,?don’t have editors.

Okay, I’m now going to see if I can find the send button and go out and ride.??My horse is always willing to let me pontificate as long as tHere’s a cookie to sweeten the deal.

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