My Single Mom Life

My neighbor called me this afternoon, she needed my help installing a new memory card in her desktop computer.
No problem I said! I've done this a lot, be right there.
I get in there and took one look at what she bought, and it was obvious it wasn't the right kind.
She bought laptop memory cards.
Laptop cards are fatter than desktop cards.

Anyway, she has a Dell desktop, and she at least knew her computer was a Dell when she went to the store.
But I'd like to know what kind of yahoo salesman didn't ask her if she has a desktop or laptop.
Or maybe she just picked one out on her own, looked for the little signs that say compatible with Dell, Acer, Gateway, Sony, etc etc.
So I had the oh so pleasant job of telling her she got the wrong kind, and she was pissed off, said she thought she was doing so good that for once she didn't need my help, started to get really upset and almost started crying.
I told her to put it back in the package and take it back, and hopefully the store will let her exchange it out for the correct kind which I wrote down for her.
I wrote down her Dell model name and number, and the size memory card she wanted, and her oldest son who is visiting is going to try taking it back.
He's the one who drove her out to get it, and tried to help her install it.
He's 19 and obviously knows as much about computers as she does.
Not much.
I told her when he gets back if they let him exchange it for the right one, that if her son couldn't install it to call me.

There are certain things I don't mind helping her with, like her computer stuff.
She's an older woman, and this is the first time she's ever had a computer, and she didn't even know how to get on the internet when she first got the computer.
She thought all you had to do was set up and plug everything in, and open IE up, and it would just go to the internet.
When it didn't just go and I had to explain that she needed an ISP, she had no idea what that was.
When I explained it to her, she was like, "Well how do I get one of those? Do I have to have a special kind of plug, and where does it plug into? There are no ISP plugs on my walls?"
I couldn't help but laugh, that was kinda cute, something an older person with no computer knowledge at all would ask.
So then I had to explain to her that she needed to call Verizon or Comcast, and tell them she needs internet service, DSL if she went with Verizon, or Comcast if she went with cable.
She had Comcast cable for her tvs already, so I told her to just call them and they would come out and hook it up.

She's getting better at it all the time, she finally learned how to print things after only showing her about a dozen times.
Then when she got a little cheapo digital camera, I taught her how to upload them to her computer, and then taught her how to attach them to emails.
She takes tons of pictures now and sends them to everyone, she loves it.
But of course being so new to the internet, she is caught up in the annoying forwards and chain emails.
She sends me dozens of them every single week.
At first I tried to tell her that all those forwards and chain emails are junk, crappy stuff that people send and expect to get back after we've sent it on to all our friends, but the majority of people on the net hate them with a passion.
She apologized, but she keeps doing it.
I just delete them now and when she asks if I read that cute email with the little bunny and the angel, I just say yes, it was so adorable and funny.

I don't even want to tell you how long it took me to help her when she bought a camera phone.