Christmas at work

I started Christmas a bit early this year. My wish list began last year when I told my son about my new job at the News-Times. He laughed and said, “Mom, I hate to say this, but a good optic-scanner would make you obsolete.”
I hated to think of being obsolete, but after the first time I had to type in all of the honor rolls for all of the schools, I decided being obsolete might not be the worst thing that could happen to me.
Don’t get me wrong. It is interesting to read that my children or a friend’s child earned all Xs or is on the honor roll this grading period. My interest wanes however, along with my enjoyment of typing, after copying the honor roll, principal’s list or all Ns for the fourth or fifth school.

As I looked at yet another siege of honor rolls one day, I passed along my son’s comment with a hopeful look. The great Santa Claus in company purchasing heard my wish. When the new computer system was ordered, an optic scanner was on the list. I would get my wish.

It has been three or four honor rolls since I first heard that we would be upgrading to a system that included an optic-scanner. It has arrived. Just in time for Christmas and the semester honor rolls.Since I treat computers as fancy typewriters with a spell check and thesaurus and think that a “mouse” is something best kept in a cage, or found in a trap, since I think that a “menu” is a list of delicious dishes, I did have a few things to learn.

The multitude of menus looked like a tests in computer talk. Thinking about the hundreds of names on the honor rolls, and copying neatly typed editorial columns, I decided to find a way to pass this quiz. I learned how to use a mouse with an electric tail and that an menu does not always list food.

Immersing myself in the confusion, I discovered new ways of entering information into the computer. While I struggled on, I noticed occasionally that others answered the phone or opened the mail for me.
But eventually I came out of my confusion with the new computer confident that I could do this thing to save me lots of time.

With this year’s labor-saving device, I recently whipped through a pile of neatly typed paperwork that used to take me a couple of hours to recopy into the old system. The optic-scanner is definitely helpful.Better yet, Bob, the News-Times computer whiz, has assured me that there are ways of inputting information directly if it is sent it on a computer disk. Computers talking to each other in their own private language. Skipping right over the middle woman – me. ALL RIGHT!

This has been a great Christmas, I got a new mechanical mouse to play with, the newest electrical labor-saving gadget and next month, if the honor rolls come in typed or on diskettes, I will actually get to sit back and enjoy reading the honor rolls of the schools where my friend’s children attend.

Some Christmases do turn out just right.
(Joan Hershberger is a news clerk at the NewsTimes.)


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