I’m tired, but my brain is spinning so I guess I should post. Maybe it will give me some clarity.

J and I went to Albuquerque yesterday, so he could fly away this morning, and so he did. I then went about my list, and number one was a visit to his mom. She’s great by the way. She lured me to see her newly installed, less than new, computer, and sat down. Uh oh. I leaned over her till she was afraid that I would end up looking “like an apostrophe”, and then took her seat. For starters, starting is sooo slow, one could nap while waiting for it to load. (Wow, am I spoiled or what? with my (not new anymore) Core(TM)2 Duo processor and 2GB RAM..I’ve no patience anymore for a 1200Mhz Celeron with 256mgs RAM) Guess I better go digging in my closet…….

She’s learning to go online, and use email. The whole business of doing that is perplexing to her and I’d been home for an hour and half (it’s a three hour drive) when the phone rang. I took care to put everything she regularly needs, on her desktop, and showed her how to open, minimize and close them. Oh dear. I have a new empathy for those tech support dudes who have to try to diagnose what’s happening when we say things like, “well, when I click on the blue thingy with the rainbow colors, nothing happens!”

Oh no…don’t get me wrong, my mother-in-law, miss Jane, is a delight. The sheer fact that she’s really trying to give it a go with the computer, is almost miraculous, and I REALLY don’t want to discourage that!

I did notice that her arthritis twisted hand was really having a hard time with the mouse. hmm. is there a better tool? She does ok with the touch pad on a laptop, but right now, has a desktop and a typical ms mouse and keyboard. I have a spare track ball, but I’m not sure that would be any better for her. I’ll have to take it down there and see. Any ideas? Please comment and let me know. The answer to “nothing happens when I click here” is that the curser wasn’t really there when she clicked, and then when it was, she couldn’t really (double) click fast enough (my, the things we take for granted!)

I put solitaire on her desktop and told her to play, hoping that the practice would help her with the mouse. It was ok till she inadvertently closed it. oops. Can you hear the phone ringing?

Too bad mouse pads aren’t “touch pads”! hmmm…interesting idea…anybody make one?

I bet there are a whole lot of finger-mobility challenged people who could use something like that!

As for me, I need a massage and good night’s sleep. At the hotel last night I woke up every time the heater (two feet from my side of the bed) came on (at about every half hour). Then there was the smoke detector in some room other than ours that kept going off. Not the beep beep beep of a low battery. But the Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…….(ad inifinitum) of one that’s been triggered. I pulled a spare pillow from the floor and covered my head. ack. No wonder I left Jane with questions about how to open a new game of solitaire!

So, I’m hoping it will dump snow tonight so that i can’t get out. I know, I know. Not what I usually say. But I have long list of things that need to be done here at home…and J is gone…and it’s the perfect time to get busy. Maybe I’ll just play hooky anyway…..Wait…I’m the owner…if I’m not there, the gallery is not open. Sigh. Guess not. The list will have to wait a bit longer. I have paintings to paint and videos to record and edit. Oh, and grant proposals to finish and ………
good grief. I better stop now or I’ll overwhelm myself! Good night, friends. Let me know if you know of a way to help Ms. Jane. Thanks.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM

4 Comments

  1. Jacqui Binford-Bell

    You can set the speed of a double click for lots slower in My Computer I think. And if it is the first or index finger that gives her trouble but others do not you can flip the L and R clicks as if left handed so her ring finger or second finger can do most of the clicking.

    Seems I have seen a keyboard with a laptop style “mouse” pad on it where the number pad usually is.

    I am going through this with my friend from Albuquerque who seems to have a phobia about typing because she never took the course my mother forced me to take. Any ideas on getting over that one?

  2. Katherine

    Duh…why didn’t I remember that when I was there?! Thanks, though. I’ll try and do that when I go back to get John.

    Tell your friend, Jane was an English teacher for some 30 odd years, and she defines “hunt and peck”, but manages to get it done. Also, I think NMC (formerly TVI) might have a typing class…surely someone in ABQ does! It’s not that hard to learn…….

  3. Art

    Try the camera mouse http://www.cameramouse.org/

    remote USB track pads are readily available. For some people, I get them to use a graphics tablet as a touchpad if hand movement is really challenging.

  4. Katherine

    thanks Art, I’ll check it out. I hadn’t thought about a tablet. Interesting idea….

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