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Life with Jake......Firing up Ol' Betsy!

Jake, my dad, is a rebel and refuses to purchase DSL internet service. He tried it once and didn’t like it.  Jake said it didn’t work properly. I told him it was an operator error.  I explained that the service did work properly but the computer he was using couldn’t handle the new technology (their computer is about 10 years old with a 50 MB hard drive).  So, they live in the Stone Age and use dial-up internet service.  He says that DSL is a waste of money and that the providers of such services are thieves. **Note:  Jake believes that everyone who doesn't give him something for free is a thief! I explain to Jake he should upgrade to this service if for no other reason than to make my life comfortable when I’m visiting.  Do you know what it is like not having internet access for days on end??!!!  The withdrawals are painful – very, very painful.   I am forced to spend considerable amounts of time squinting and killing the battery on my Droid.  This is not healthy for me.  Jake tells me that if I need to use the internet he will be happy to fire up Ol’ Betsy.  Ol’ Betsy is the pet name he has assigned to his archaic computer and dial-up internet service.  I tell him I would prefer to drive 100 miles and smoke a Camel rather than deal with that mess.

One morning, as we are standing in the kitchen chatting, he said he wanted me to look up the telephone number for Dial-A-Nurse on my phone.  I wanted to suggest he fire up Ol’ Betsy and look the number up himself, but I complied.  In less than 60 seconds (after using my handy dandy Droid), I was writing the number down for him.  I took this opportunity to once again tell him that if he had a modern computer and DSL, he would have been able to acquire the number that quickly himself.  He said that it would have only taken him half a day and that he could do other things while waiting on Ol’ Betsy to get going, therefore it would be a waste of money to get DSL.  I shook my head, sighed deeply and walked out of the kitchen.  After all, who can compete with Ol’ Betsy!

I’m just sayin’,

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