Still trying to get my mind around the 21st Century

[Radio]

This year the kids and I put our Christmas wishes up on Facebook. We orchestrated Kathy's Christmas surprise and let each other know what we'd like to find in our Christmas stockings.

One of my stocking requests was a cheap calculator that just does basic functions, the kind you would use to balance your checkbook. I have a 20 year old calculator at work that's about reached the end of it's useful life and I wanted to replace it. I was very specific.... I do not need a scientific calculator like a TI-30... and I didn't want them to spend more than $10.

So Christmas Day finally arrived. And guess what I find in my stocking?

A brand spanking new Texas Instruments TI-30.

So I chided Matt a little bit, "Hey, you spent too much money. I wanted a cheap $10 calculator"

His response: "Dad, it's the 21st century. A TI-30 is a cheap $10 calculator"

***

I met my first TI-30 in 1978. They cost about $50 at an engineering bookstore and the 9 volt battery would last about a week of use on the college level. This one cost $9, does way more stuff than it's ancestors, never needs batteries and was purchased at a corner drug store.

And I'm still just now getting acquainted with the 21st century.

[NN5I]

Humph. In many ways I'm still being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 19th century.

[Radio]

Is it horses or oil lamps that give you the most trouble?

[NN5I]

Neither. It's smokeless powder.

[N3LYT]

My wife just got a cell phone and we both discovered there is a thing called a tablet that acts like a little tiny computer.