Grannies and Technology

For Christmas I made DVD's of Jayla's Christmas performances for her grandparents. My own grandmother (Jayla's great-grandmother) has not seen her in over a year so, I thought it would be a good gesture to also let her see the performances. Except, uhhh...my grandmother does not have a DVD player. For a brief moment, I even doubted whether she owned a VCR to play VHS tapes. It turned out that she did. So, my task became finding a place that sold VHS tapes. And since they didn't have them at Wal-mart (my first, and most logical shopping designation), I was convinced that they are no longer manufactured and that I would have to buy my grandmother a DVD player. But, who would hook it up? And does her TV have the right AV connections? Ack! I finally came to my senses long enough to look for VHS tapes in other stores and while Best Buy also doesn't sell them, Office Depot and Target do. So, all was well with the world. I was able to copy the DVD to VHS and send it to her. She received it on Christmas Eve and enjoyed every second of it. But, let me tell you how much easier that whole effort would have been if she just had access to slightly more updated technology...

In related news, tonight, my husband called his parents. They were at his grandmother's house, setting up a computer that they are handing down to her. She is very excited about starting computer classes at the "Y". She's taking a six-week class that will teach her the "basics". "Of what?", I asked. No one seems to be able to answer that question. But, what really cracked me up is that when my father-in-law turned the computer on after hooking everything up, Granny commented in disbelief, "You can turn on the computer on without the Internet?!?!?". I'm just saying - the instructor at the "Y" has his/her work cut out for him/her...