Buying a computer

Subject: Buying a computer.

"If awe we had the giftie gie us so see our sen as others see us it would from many a silly notation free us"
I bought another Lap Top computer on Saturday, part of the mad Black Friday spending spree, a replacement for my ageing 10 year old Dell which was running so slow that it was driving me crazy !!  

I chose one, with the help of Andrew, who nudged me the moment I said "this one is ok", onto the next with a suggestion that it was better. 

We emerged from the shop with an HP Pavilion 360 Convertible touch screen SSD and went home to unpack this latest piece of wizardry.

A rather sexy female voice emanating from the computers 'set up' menu prompted me to select this or that, customising the computer with passwords and PIN numbers.

I thought I did ok but little did I know, Andrew was filming me throughout and on watching this 'old man' stumbling around,  clearly out of his comfort zone, pondering the last instruction, aware, like people of my generation that a false keystroke at this point in time would cause the computer to explode and dissolve in front of me. 

Unlike the young today who live a virtual world, we were brought up on a secure, step by step upbringing where a wrong move had consequences which no longer apply to them but still does to me.

As I watched the image of my dad in his advancing years unfold in the Doppelganger that was me I realised the self image I carry around is not true. It's an amalgam of past shots, of fleeting glances in the mirror, of remembered actions and reactions, all a far cry from the stumbling old bugger now on the screen trying to follow instructions. 

An identity shift into the old people's home might be more appropriate, snoozing the time away in an armchair or eating custard through a straw.

Robert Burns was rights, we have this image of ourselves as a protection from reality. We can still run and catch a bus but we prefer the car. We can still attract the opposite sex if it weren't for the fact that their interest seems elsewhere. We can still desire to explore new pastures if it weren't that our comfort zone is slowly closing in.

Andrew had no idea the emotions he stirred in his bit of fun. Not sad emotions, no sense of being resentful, no anger, only a realisation that my Doppelganger friend and I are so far advanced along the road, a road from which there is no return !!!