Password: SeniorMoment: Based On the Award-Winning Newspaper Column, "Patricia Bunin's Senior Moments"

By Patricia Bunin and Kent Shocknek

"Password: SeniorMoment" is based on Patricia Bunin's weekly "Senior Moments" column published in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Redlands Daily Facts, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. The book is a collection of personal vignettes that illustrate how aging adults design and define their lives. The stories within deal with everything from taking care of aging parents to online dating to learning the ins and outs of the Internet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9780985325510

Book preview

Anchor

Password:SocialNetworking

Password: SeniorMoment

Who is your favorite male singer? I called down the hall to my husband from my home office to his. You know very well it’s Frank Sinatra, he responded. Apparently not.

According to the customer service rep at the online banking service, who was waiting patiently on the phone, George had failed his own test. And without the password, we could not get access to our account.

My husband, the techno-buff, is very proud of his systematized method of online money management. It seems to work well for him until he has to remember which code word he has used on which account. He prides himself on his creative use of passwords, which, of course, is only useful if you can remember them.

Plebeian that I am, I always go with the same word, a practice which George insists leaves me vulnerable to identity theft. That will never happen to him because even he can’t steal his own identity with his current system.

The name of our kitty, now deceased four years, was on one of the accounts he opened the year we adopted her (she actually adopted us by appearing at the kitchen door and refusing to leave, but that’s a different story). Name of family pet?, the rep asked me.

We don't have one right now, I responded.

Ever have one? he asked, just a tad less patiently. We’ve had six cats. After eliminating Softy, Miss Suzy

and Scarlett O’Hara, I hit the jackpot.

However, we still don’t know who George’s favorite male singer is. He is thinking Neil Diamond, but the account rep says no.

So anybody out there thinking of hacking into our accounts, it’s not going to happen. They are so secure even we can’t access them.

Hash Marks, Hashtags, It’s All About Staying #youngandhip

In her unceasing efforts to keep her mother young and hip, my daughter is struggling to teach me the Hows and whys of hash marks. What?, you might be asking. Me too.

Here is a rough explanation — I am sure Sara will correct me — (oops, she just did … that would be hashtags, not hash marks).

So we begin again. Hashtags are descriptive words or phrases used with a tweet … assuming you know what a tweet is … and I do assume because I feel sure I have a very hip readership.

But it doesn’t hurt to restate. A tweet is how we communicate on Twitter, a social media network that restricts each communication to 140 characters. You can see the need for abbreviated subject tags. The hash mark (make that tag) is indicated by a number sign followed by a series of words with no spaces in between. #slowlearner

Sara sent me an example last night with a note that she was watching murder mysteries about husbands who kill their wives. #happytobealiveandsingle

On a side topic that may be of even more importance to my readers, according to Sara the show she was watching reported that some senior husbands in distress are killing their wives for their life insurance.

Others for the food brought by church members during bereavement.

I am taking a small break here to go check my insurance policy.

Back and happy to report that it’s not worth the effort for my husband to murder me. At least not for the money. The food from friends? Now that might be another story. #casserolebrigade

So if you suddenly see your husband backing down the driveway while you are standing in it, or picking up a meat cleaver when you are cooking vegetarian, beware! #triedtowarnyou

I would like to add a disclaimer here that if I have misused, misunderstood or misreported the meaning or usage of the hashtag, it is not for lack of trying. #workingonit

All Thumbs When It Comes to Texting

When my daughter upgraded to a smart phone, she gave me her old cell. Even her dumb phone was smarter than my cell phone, which lacked texting capacity. So she offered to teach me to text. Seems like a nice enough gesture, doesn’t it? What follows are quotes from Sara during our first lesson.

Mom, you’re an intelligent woman. You ran your own business. You can do this. Just take it slow. OK, put your thumb here...

20 minutes later:

Well, you creative types have more trouble with the technical stuff. Remember how hard it was for you to learn the computer? Use both thumbs, Mom.

25 minutes later:

OK, Mom, remember how hard it was for you to go from your manual typewriter to the electric? You want to use your index finger instead of your thumb?

20 minutes and a big sigh later:

Let’s start again. Remember how hard it was for you to go from pen and paper to the manual typewriter? Please go back to your thumbs.

20 more minutes and the you’ve got to be kidding me look later:

"I know ‘CU soon’ is not proper grammar, but we are working with a limited number of characters here.

Everybody uses it. Yes, I know you are not everybody else … everybody else knows how to text!"

5 softer minutes later:

"How about an incentive? I am putting an icon for you

on my new phone. Every time you text me, a teapot will come up. Like our own private tea party. Try again."

10 exasperated minutes later:

Look, Mom, any idiot can learn to text. This is not rocket science. Focus here.

(This ends the quotes from my daughter, who has now left the building.)

I got to thinking about her last comment, and after reviewing the notes I took during our lesson, I carefully, using both thumbs, sent her this text: T 4 2?

Looks like she may have been right.

Not Feeling Like a Twit on Twitter

Who knew I needed followers? Isn’t it enough that I spent a year figuring out how to have friends?

I thought Facebook was a challenge,