Dear paper calendar Girl:

I would like to be the one to take credit for your continued use of the Old School Method. But know you are doing the thing that seems to best suit your personality. Which is a good thing: as in 'Know Thyself'. I'm sad for all the important information that was gobbled up by the big creature that lives out in 'There Be Dragons Here': the vast unknown. Making me think about the part of the Star Wars movie when the Millenium Falcon was being chased by the Troopers and evaded the bag guys only to discover they were inside the digestive tract of some huge space creature. Barely escaping before being digested.

The cyber world continually baffles me - so much I don't understand there is no ground to stand on for a starting point in order to grasp at the small bits as they blow past, like catching fireflies in a Mason jar. With nothing solid underfoot to begin the process of comprehension, it's always taking a step out into the unknown, hoping that your foot does not land on bamboo spikes, quicksand or IED.

And sadly - there is always a hazard with choosing to do things like Smith-Barney: 'the old fashioned way'. You could misplace that thing that keeps you organized. There was a time when I took my calendar with me nearly everywhere I go. I have since learned to leave it at home, or in my car, and be willing to tell people I will have to call them when I check a particular square before making plans. But then the unthinkable occured: I lost it. Nearly. I left work one day, pushing a grocery cart across the lot to take my purchases to my car. And forgot to get the calendar out of the cart. Realized much later that night that I did not have the all-important pages that would direct my path for weeks to come. In the process of mentally retracing my steps, I figured out that the last time I remembered seeing the book: when I was at work.

Amazingly - that calendar was still sitting in that shopping card, that was still sitting in the parking lot the following morning. Something that the 'carry out' guys never allow - they are instructed to always, always round up all the abandoned buggies left to meander across the asphalt and bring them back in the store for re-use. But somehow this one cart was left out at the far end of the lot, and had my damp calendar still. Squeezed down between the seat and the metal grid on the side of the cart. But still right where I left it. Amazing.


So - yeash. I am all for 'old school' methods. And praise you for having a back up plan. Especially when I see so many folk who completely depend on their hand-held devices to do all their remebering for them: names, numbers, dates, appointments, connections. What's going to happen when it gets lost, dropped, washed, run over, stolen, ceases to function? The same thing that will happen to the modern world when the grid goes, and all the info. stored in all the computers evaporates, instantly being consumed by that huge, open-mouthed space creature still awaiting feeding time in Star Wars...