CUTTING FEELS RIGHT

Henceforth, there will only be ONE or TWO blog postings per month rather than four.

I’m planning significant life changes; my focus needs to be there. Yet to be done are many tasks, planning, & much more research. Not to mention, I’ve got two major exploratory trips ahead and I’d prefer not broadcasting to burglars when I’m away.

Hey, it’s not as if I’m disappointing legions of fans! I’ve got only a handful of followers, and I don’t know how many of those are still reading. I know my friend Rose does, we email nearly every day.

She claims I probably have a lot more readers, but they just aren’t followers. Rose is sweet. But this is wishful thinking. If none of those people enjoy my blog enough to become followers, they are phantoms to me. I make decisions on what I see.

A few have told me they would like to become followers, but are confused by the process involved. These are all women around my age who are not computer savvy. I can understand and sympathize. We are all dinosaurs sloshing around in the same tar pit. But these are friends I see and talk to, at least on a semi-regular basis.

On occasion, I post my blog on Facebook. Before I unleashed the unfriending fairy, I had over 200 “Friends”. Out of these 200 plus people, if only 1 or 2 LIKED my blog, I was lucky!!! Or perhaps more read it and they just didn’t like my writing.

I received way more LIKES for the photos of my newly gray hair! But then, people prefer pictures.

I recall clicking on a “Friend” page where someone posted a photo of their lunch, a stupid salad that didn’t even look that tasty, yet it got 15 LIKES!

I realize my blog isn’t everyone’s flavor of coffee, I get that! Others have always had difficulty relating to me and I find them equally unrelatable. – Thank goodness I say! 

I write this mainly for myself. It’s equal parts memoir & therapy with a scoop of book promotion thrown in. So, therefore I am doing what feels best for me!

Later, when things become settled, my posts will likely be more frequent, again. Also in the not too distant future I plan on starting a new blog, ending this one.

After I return from my exploratory trips, I’ll do plenty of blogging about each. So take heart my compadres, followers, faux Facebook friends, & phantom readers too, as with everything in life, this is only temporary.

WHAT'S NEW, MY GRAY DEBUT

AND TECHNICAL HEADACHES, TOO!!!

My online photos have now been updated. The old ones were shot only a few years ago!

Unfortunately, my old standby the Sear’s Portrait Studio is gone, forever. So I hired a photographer in town. He was an elderly gentleman, and he did a fine job. However, these were outrageously expensive for my pocketbook! But I’m almost 65; I know I won’t be this young and pretty forever, so I spent the money! My looks have been on borrowed time for years now!

Note: This Blog photo will remain the same. It has mostly concerned my life here in Vero Beach after my father’s death. These were my red-haired years.

After I decide which country I’m going to expatriate and I have my Retirement Visa, I intend to start a brand new Blog with a new title. This won’t be a new chapter of my life, but an entire new book, it’s a sequel to my movie. I think of it that way!

My young Tech man Jake was here to help me, recently. Not only with placing the photos, but numerous other things as well. Expatriating is forcing me to rely more on technology than ever before! As you know, this is way out of my element.

For my exploratory trips, I bought a pre-paid cell phone with a camera and Internet access. I don’t want to return home to find 50,000 emails in my Inbox.

The salesman said the instructions were easy. When I read them, I wanted to break down and cry! They may as well have been written in Arabic! -- Well Jake had problems with it, too! He couldn’t get it up & working the way it’s supposed. And Jake is NO dummy, plus this is his area of expertise.

Jake is returning to give me another computer lesson, plus tackle this damn phone. I may end up taking it back! I should have brought Jake along when I was phone shopping. He would have known exactly what to purchase and saved me from making an expensive mistake!

When the package was opened, I couldn’t believe that piddly, little thing was my new telephone! Plus I would need Lilliputian-sized fingers to operate it. My hands are small for an adult, yet this is going to be difficult. Plus I’ll have to run outside with my Elf phone every time I want to make or receive a call because there is zero cell reception inside my house. This is crazy, it’s not progress! My land-line is a REAL phone!

I HATE ALL THIS MODERN TECHNOLOGY!!! 

Always, I take lots of notes when Jake is here. After he leaves and I try to implement them, it seems I’m either missing a step or not doing something right. Ugh!!! Every little maneuver requires way too many steps.

Jake is the best Tech person I’ve found, and he is patient. After I find myself in another county, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him! Plus I’ll be dealing with a foreign language! I’m looking ahead to feeling lost and frustrated.

On the other hand, I will be amongst a vast gray migration of U.S. retirees, my age and older, none of whom grew up with computers. They’ll have already dealt with the same issues I’m going to face. But I’m wondering how helpful they will be. I am willing to pay a fair price for help, but finding it may be a problem.