Country Gal by Vanita Blundell April 29, 2008

We were sad to hear that Kent Hart had passed away this past week- I did not know Kent all that well. What I did know of him was that I thought he was a good cowboy and enjoyed living the farm and ranch life. He had a dog with him most of the time. I always thought that anyone who loved a dog enough to keep it with him was a good man. I know that his family will have a void in their lives that can never be filled. Our hearts are with them.
One thing that I have found more annoying than telemarketers is accessing an account on-line. Once you finally figure which site you need then there are user names- passwords- One has to have a notebook to keep track of what user name you use and what password you have used. I have one account that requires three passwords. By the time I get there, I cannot remember what I wanted to do or I am so tired and irritated that I no longer care. Then you have to be able to ask the question that you need to know in the only way that the computer recognizes.
When you get so angry at the on-line site, you could call the head office. Oh, that is fun. NOT! It would be all right if you could speak to a person instead of an automated system. Those are exasperating. They ask you to push one number after another and the list keeps going on. They ask so many questions that you are not sure that you ever had a problem, in the first place.
I have found that if you get so infuriated that you cannot push one more number and you have been patiently doing everything they ask, there is something you can do. If you yell a naughty word at the automated system, you will be connected to a representative rather quickly. I am aware that many of you are too nice to do this and I am sad to say that from personal experience I know this really does work.
Do you remember when you could go into or even call a business office and ask about your account and they would go to the long rows of file cabinets and locate your file. In that file was all of your information then they would be able to tell you what ever you needed to know? You could find out if you had paid the bill or if they owed you, which is never the case. They had all of the information at their fingertips. They could answer any question you had asked them. Now when you go to an office and ask a simple question, they are more than happy to assist you if the computers are up and if the internet is working properly. If not you will just have to wait until the computer world is up and running again.
I know that computers certainly have helped us out in many ways; I just get so frustrated with the system. I guess you could say that I am computer challenged.