Just a strange week

A lot went on this week that I've really struggled to get my head around.

Yesterday, I spoke with my parents on the phone. (Yes, I realize it's twice in one month, and yes, I know that's pushing the envelope...)

Those who know my father, age 59 and anti- technology/electricity/people, would expect him to be digging a hole in the ground to get as far away from the internet as he possibly can. Instead, he upgrades from dialup (at the end of the summer), and now announces to me, over the phone WITHOUT asking me to sit down first, that he not only bought a "Web camera," but he is also on Skype.

When the dizzy-spell subsided, I had already hung up the phone. I don't remember much about how the rest of the conversation went, because I was still replaying in my mind how many emails back and forth and the effort it took to convince my parents to click on a 4-minute Youtube link I had sent them just a week earlier.

I even remembered back to the day before I left for college, as a freshman. I sat down in a chair next to the computer, and wrote out step-by-step directions for my mother on how to "copy and paste" something. They just grow up too fast, you know?

Before the proverbial dust had settled, more news came to shake my world. As I watched Canada somehow top our United States of America (scripted?), my phone rang with an unfamiliar number, despite possessing my very familiar small-town area code.

I answered, to hear my hometown neighbor and "adopted" Grandma Mary on the other side of the phone. At 88 years young, Mary has purchased a cell phone. Mary doesn't own a computer, has never been on the internet, and needs help running her VCR... oh, and now she has a cell phone.

She explained to me that she doesn't know how to use all the fancy features on it, describing the calculator and the contact page, but she's very excited about her new Verizon phone, which she can now have with her, even when she's outside.

I struggled to hold back laughter at the picture of my little old "grandma" talking to me on a cell phone that probably has a better camera on it than any camera she might have in the house, and got through our 20-minute conversation without much more than a restrained chuckle. After I hung up, I took the time out to laugh, but as I did, I couldn't help but think this would be much more productive than my dad's skyping. I don't even have a webcam, so I can't skype with my dad, but with Mary's new phone, now I can call her for free, without concern of eating up our monthly minutes.

I leave you with one bit of devastating news, and I will ask, if you aren't already sitting down, please do so. (I don't know who would stand to use a computer anyway...) When Target Field opens this year, it will do so without the joyous music brought by the Hormel Row of Fame. Hormel is no longer with the Twins, so the song we've all come to know and love, the song we would stand shout at the top of our lungs whenever played, is no more. Attached below is a link, please take one last listen, sing along once more if you'd like, then observe, individually, your moment of silence. It will be hard on all of us, I know - but we will persevere through this hardship. If you need support, please don't hesitate to ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjfo0vffMu0