Wow! Food service has really changed

The fast food soda machines look like this

I don’t go out to eat very much so it surprised me to find all this new equipment in restaurants today.  I’m talking about fast food as well as sit-down restaurants.  We only get fast food a couple of times a year.  Hubby won two meals at Wendy’s from the radio station so we went there about a month ago.  It took us a minute to figure out how to use the soda machine.  We’re used to the old fashioned ones with a slot for each beverage.  This one was all press buttons.  Once I selected a beverage a whole new screen popped up with more selections.  We finally got our drinks.  This sure is high tech for fast food.

 A tabletop tablet

All you do is sign with your finger after putting in the tip  Very space age, huh?

A couple of weeks after that, we met some friends at Olive Garden for an early dinner.  I was surprised to find a pay center right at the table.  It even spits out a receipt for you.  When were those installed?  Now there’s no need to wait for a waitress to take care of the bill.  I can see this would be good because it frees up the staff and they also don’t have to leave with your credit card.  Everything is becoming so high-tech.  I’m not sure I like it.

Sometimes technology can try your patience

This is my HP all-in-one printer

I know most of you know what I’m talking about.  Things always decide to go on strike when you really don’t have the time to coax it along and you just want to get on with it.  Sometimes things test our patience and persistence. 

Yesterday I had some paperwork to catch up on while I was off work.  The first thing I noticed is that I needed more forms to perform the task at hand.  Wouldn’t you know that first, I had to make copies and second, none of the copiers in the house wanted to work.  I didn’t want to drive into town to the office supply store just to make copies, so I had to put my thinking cap on.  How could I get around this without leaving my house?

It’s about 10 miles to the closest office supply.  So after racking my brain I was hoping the scanner on my “new” printer was still working.  What I mean by new is that I just bought this printer in Jan and you would think it would still work, but I’m having issues with the black ink.  I need to call them and see if I can straighten it out because I already tried all the troubleshooting I can think of.  I’m pretty disgusted with this printer at the moment.

But on the plus side, the scanner still works, so I was able to scan the document I needed copies of into my desktop and then copy that to my external drive and load it from there into my laptop so I could carry that downstairs and hook it up to my hubby’s laser printer and print the form I needed.  What a big mess, but I was successful in the end, although this put me about two hours behind schedule.

I know you may be wondering why I didn’t scan the form right to my laptop.  I could have but it’s new and I don’t have the wayward printer loaded into it yet.  At this time I don’t think I will load the software over there until I get the printer straightened out. 

So if you are ever in a position where you encounter this type of problem, just think it out and come up with a solution.  I think this was still faster than driving into town and waiting at the office supply to make copies, plus it didn’t cost me anything extra except time.

I always seem to have printer issues of some sort.  I had the same problem with my old printer but I’d had it for years so I wasn’t entirely surprised when it acted up.  But I expect better things out of something not even a year old.  I hope HP has some ideas for me on how to fix this thing.

Cherishing Friends and Family

Free Clipart



We should cherish friends and family, even if we don’t always agree with everything they do or have to say. We all only have so many of each. We must remember that it is okay to disagree because the world would be a dull place, if we were exactly alike.


We’ve all heard the old saying, if it matters, a friend won’t mind, and if they mind, it doesn’t matter. True friends are there for you no matter what, accepting you for who you are. You can’t put a price on that. You can choose your friends, but not your family. Unfortunately, you are stuck there with the family you happened to get. As we all know, there is usually family conflict from time to time. Maybe this is how it all works, a design of some sort to make you stronger in various ways.

I know there have been skirmishes in my family. There are too many of us to agree on much of anything. We will never agree on some things, yet I can appreciate different views and nothing like that ever really bothers me. It’s okay in my book to be quirky, crazy, or serious, although there’s no need to be too serious all the time. Sometimes, more fun comes from letting your hair down. It’s always fun to laugh and carry on once in awhile, and this is certainly good for the spirit and your health. This is much better than stressing out over a conflict you can never solve.

It boils down to the fact that we all have to live our own lives, but we should still be able to get along with others. The problem today is that a lot of us don’t practice the golden rule anymore. Maybe this is due to the way people grow up with preconceived notions about things. They say we are products of our upbringing and environment. I think this is accurate.

However, we can all learn something from everyone we meet in life, if we keep an open mind. Many find this hard to do. Sometimes, this is beyond my understanding because as long as people aren’t pushing their beliefs on me, I really don’t care what quirks they have. It matters not if they’re green or purple either, or come from a very different place than myself. We are all people living on this planet. We should all be equal, yet free to partake in whatever we decide is important in our lives.

I love my old friends dearly and in a way, they are like family. Sometimes they can be closer than family. I love meeting new friends too. Finding things in common makes this even better. Someone always brings something new to the table, perhaps an interesting hobby, life stories, or something else that is thought provoking. Stretching your mind and learning is a good thing, and should be a life long endeavor.

We are so lucky to live in this age of technology where we can stay in touch with family and friends better than ever before, even if you live across the globe. Not too many weeks ago, I found myself on FB with two of my sisters, so the three of us had a nice chat. That was great fun, completely unplanned, and doesn’t happen often. The internet is a marvelous place.

I Have Email Overload

Free Clipart



Boy do I get a lot of that! I don’t know about any of you, but I am a terrible offender about emailing myself links that I just don’t have time to read right now. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to rush through things all the time because life sure would be easier, but then I probably would not accomplish much each day either. I guess some of these things can be a double-edged sword.


I love all the new technology we have these days. I can’t imagine the world without the internet and email. And to think that only a few years ago, I thought the fax machine was such a marvelous invention. I guess that is really showing my age.

Today you can find out anything about anything on the internet. Sometimes I wonder who had all the time to type up all that stuff. Keeping in touch has never been easier either. With email, the recipient gets it instantly, not like a letter that may take a week to arrive. Then they can answer you in their own time, making it convenient for everybody and better than picking up the phone sometimes.

I spend hours every day at my computer because writing books takes a lot of time. It is so nice to know if I have to search for a fact; it is right at my fingertips, just a click or two away. The only problem with this is I usually find myself sidetracked by other info I want to read, and I really wasn’t looking for just then. So hence, more email to me from me. Having 4500 emails in my inbox, at any given time, is a common thing for me. However, this presents another daunting task. I have no extra time to go through them, yet I can’t break myself from this habit. Maybe there is a “Computer-a-holics Anonymous,” with an email division that I can join.

I am excited to see where we are in twenty years. Of course, by then maybe I’ll be too old to care, but technology is exciting.