By Edward A. Forbes
The Bulletin
I finally found the word that explains my manual dexterity - “ambisinister”.
The definition is “clumsy or unskilled in use of either hand.” This may be a slight exaggeration with emphasis on the slight.
The old saying: “The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing” doesn’t apply to me. The right hand in my case doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
I employed a gentleman to work on my home and repair things on it for many years. He did some remodeling that still looks and functions well 20-plus years later. He always told me: “Eddie, if you call me first before trying to fix it yourself, I’ll give you a 10 percent discount on the job.”
There was a message in this totally unsolicited discount; it was less work to fix whatever without having to also fix what I messed up.
There also appears to be a correlation between the hands thing and the right and left side of my brain. I was attempting to help a friend who has no computer access by scanning 25 pages of documents into an email. My new all-in-one printer scans to computer or email, but I had to manually put one page at a time on the scanner glass.
Two hours later, I successfully scanned and saved documents with the computer as the destination. I then went to the computer, and the documents were nowhere to be found.
I called my daughter for technical assistance. She came by, and NO, the documents were nowhere to be found. I went from software savant to idiot in a few short hours.
Fortunately for me, my IT department (my lovely daughter Chanie) had a solution. She used her phone and scanned the pages, emailed them to me, saved them in my computer and then emailed them to the appropriate people. She did all this in a matter of minutes, not the hours I spent scanning on the printer.
Hurrah!! To assuage my battered ego, I used a pair of pliers to fix a zipper on new jeans. The pull tab was in sideways, and I managed to correct it without destroying anything. I felt better.
And then… I received an email concerning my medical directives, and something required a signature. I immediately tried to log in and ran head first into “unmatched ID or password.”
I consulted my notes and found that I had indeed entered the ID incorrectly. I attempted to rectify it and then got: “password incorrect, have you lost your password?”
I answered “yes.”
“A link to reset your password will be sent to your phone or email.” I chose the phone and waited and waited. Nothing came to my phone, so I went through the rigmarole again and chose email.
First, it sent a four-digit number for verification that this was my email, asked me to enter that number, and then I could reset the password. I did that and then had to log in again with the new password.
Doesn’t this sound familiar - like something that may have happened to you? I checked my information and found I had entered my phone number incorrectly, duh. No cheers for that minor non-accomplishment.
I changed some information and quickly found out that I needed my IT person again because I had to print, sign, and have notarized the pages that I made changes on. I am waiting to meet with my IT person.
So, if you are feeling poorly about your personal computer and device wars, you are welcome to reread this little ditty and conclude that you don’t feel so bad after all.
(Email Edward Forbes at eforbes1946@gmail.com or send comments to The Bulletin, P.O. Box 2426, Angleton, TX. 77516.)
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