Things Are Better And Worse...

Hello...

My Grandmother brought my family to North America via the Steamship - the S.S. Europa...

She remains the Fiesty Matriarch and the old horse glue - and she can still hear you curse her name from across a room - women like her are dieing and being replaced with digital princesses...

My God - what a beautiful ship...

Things are better today - we can travel from our armchairs - we can go into national libraries with a few clicks of a keyboard - my Grandmother does not understand how or what I do - nor does my mother - but I hope they would respect same - save the drink - and that would be enough...

They could look at it - my work - and see my ideas - with the technology we all subscribe to today...

I guess this post is a cry to make what we do understandable to our families or 'older' peers who did not keep up with all this mess - because they are in their last years and they may feel they do not need to - but this technology can be a great comfort to them - if they would admit same - their world would open up again...

My wife’s mother has kept up things and she is wonderful - they Email and phone one another every damned weekend...

I don't know - I guess I wish more of my own family were 'online'...

SH.

 

Focus on connections...

Sean, this is a thought we can all do something about...

My wife and I have put special effort into connecting with family as we have been living 'overseas' (from the States) in Africa and China the past 4 years.

My Dad is 95, and my wife's mother is 84. We have actively helped both of them get and stay online, providing both computers and help. However they may not be typical.. my Dad has been 'online' since Ham Radio in the 1930's, and Mom calls her computer "My Baby!"...

But they wouldn't be doing this well without a lot of help and encouragement, and backup from family or even a paid technician once in a while. Our children know computers very well, and they often help out when some confusing thing happens, like "My Email disappeared", or "Where did the browser go?? It was OK yesterday". Etc.

We also use "logmein.com" (free version) which we have installed on both of their machines so we can log in and see everything on their screens and run their machines remotely. This has saved us several times, finding the minimized browser, un-muting their audio etc etc. We also remotely put icons on their desktop pointing directly to photo albums we have put on the web, as they get confused and often lose links sent in email. Like this:
http://www.terryking.us/photoalbum/main.php?g2_itemId=4672

We also use Windows Messenger and check to see when they are online and send a note. My Dad and I get into the old Ham RTTY mode and that typing communication works well for him as he's very hard of hearing and the phone is not very useable. Email is good because of the time shift (We're 13 hours different).

But that's all tekkie stuff. The challenging part is to be able to keep expressing clearly what we're doing, what it means, and why it matters.
Photos and Images are good.

But good old mail is very popular with older folks! Sometimes we print an email and mail it!

I'd be interested in hearing what you other people think about this!

Your image of the ship is great; we just flew from New York to Hong Kong in 15 hours after visiting home for 10 days. We got to 87.5 degrees North over the Artic, according to my GPS, almost to the North Pole. At that point our lives were dependent on the technology, just like your Grandmother in mid-atlantic.

It is an amazing time and you've encouraged us to communicate it.

 

Yeah - they are stubborn...

Hello...

Thank you for your reply - I can only rely on the above visiting my sister who is net savvy and viewing same - my sister is good at making grand and great grand children...

My sperm seem to be much like me - once they get outside they get apathetic...

I cannot expect them to own or operate same for themselves - my grandmother - sperm cannot operate computers - they are just so damned stubborn and it is maddening - hell - I am sure they still pay their bills per banking hours - my grandmother - pay attention - and I imagine that they are on speaking terms with the teller...

But that is OK - for now...

Again - thanks TK...

Looks like the S.S. Europa was a German owned ship run out of Norway...

SH.

 

More pictures of the Europa.

Some more views. Looks like she was around for a long time.

K9