As I can’t blog about what I really want to blog about (I am working on a fix for that), I decided instead to bring you the conversation I had with mother tonight. She and my sister, apparently, have decided that my mother should join Match.com. She needs to upload a picture, which my sister sent to her already. This picture is a picture of another picture. Which is very bizarre as both of them own scanners and my sister has a kick-ass one. I guess she has not yet figured out how to use it. Here goes the conversation:
Mom: I need to get the picture of a picture of a picture that Kathy sent me. It is on my iPad.
Me: You need to do it from your computer.
Mom: But it is all on my iPad not on my computer.
Me: Mom, just because you used your iPad to set it up doesn’t mean it is only on your iPad. Match.com is on the Internet. Go to your computer and open up the email. (I will save you the play by play of this activity)
Mom: Ok.
Me: Download the picture to your desktop so you know where it is.
Mom: How do I do that?
Me: Open the picture
Mom: (lots of fumbling and muttering) I have it open. It is called DSC … Bmp.
Me: (I start to open up Parallels and Windows as I fear I will have to remote in). What is the name of the program that opened the picture? Maybe MS Paint?
Mom: Google Chrome?
Me: Let’s connect the computers ok? Open up MS Live Messenger.
Mom: Is that in the control panel?
Me: No. You need to press the start button and go to all programs. Scroll down until you see the Windows Live folder and open Windows live messenger.
Mom: Ok, I see it. Should I open it?
Me: Yes, open it and sign in.
Mom: It’s wrong?
Me: What’s wrong?
Mom: It has my Cecelia2@redacted.com
Me: That is just the address you used to set it up. It is now like your user name.
Mom: Ok, I have it opened.
Me: Hang on. I am trying to get into windows. It is very slow.
Mom: Are you in yet?
Me: Yes, I have sent a message. Do you see it flashing at the bottom of your screen?
Mom: Yes.
Me: Good. Now, look at the top right-hand corner for the drop down arrow that lets you select Actions and then Request Remote Assistance.
Mom: Do you want me to hit the X?
Me: No! Look underneath for the drop down arrow under the X. We just did this on the weekend.
Mom: It’s not there. Let me open it again. I need to sign in again.
Me: No you don’t. You are already signed in.
Mom: No I’m not.
Me: I can see you. I just sent you another message. Can you see it?
Mom: It says ‘I can see you.’
Me: Right. Now go to the upper right hand corner and hit the drop-down arrow.
Mom: It’s not there…
We went through this loop several more times with no success.
Me: Send me the picture and your login and password for match.com
Mom: I can’t it is on my iPad …
Me: *head*desk*head*desk*head*desk
I think computer companies should reward adult children of seniors for assisting their senior parents adopt technology! Being tech support for my 75-year old mother is getting to be very, very, very trying! She does love her iPad though!
Dispatches from the Swamp 
Oh.My.God.
On the other hand, I dearly wish my 79 year old dad would learn to use a computer just so I could communicate daily via email. He flatly refuses, and I find that making the time to call him (factoring in not only the 3 hour time difference, but both the Senators and Ottawa 67’s game schedules as he has seasons tickets to both) difficult.
my mom types “Love Momma, over and out” at the end of every msn conversation, and starts with “dear Lydia”
They really should start to licence computer operators. I deal with this sort of thing daily!
When I first started working for the Ministry in BC they still had dumb terminals! While I was training, they ‘rolled out’ the very first PCs ever to be seen. I have never seen anything like it. I spent the last 2 weeks of my training trying to teach these old civil servants how to use a PC. It was unreal. I seriously wanted to set up an SPCA for computers and apprehend theirs!