Technology and 20 years!

While wooden signs nailed into the trees still mark the way through the forest, I have grow to rely on newer technology!

Every day I pick up my trusted friend and look for updates from home. With technology at/in hand I can send pictures, catch little snippets of daily activities from facebook, enjoy long sessions of SKYPE with my granddaughter, sons, parents and other family and friends, talk on a IP based phone to any number back in the states for only the small monthly connection fee and they can call me free of charge. WE can send and receive emails in matters of minutes, translate from German to English (now this is a big one!), plan trips and print maps, navigate through round-a-bouts like a pro with the aid of our GPS. We get to watch Oklahoma City news and weather live via Slingbox as well as record our favorite shows for play back on our time zone. We have recorded video and posted it online for others to see almost instantly. I can call my husband on our German procured cellphones to let him know I am going to be late getting home from work. We have ordered things from electronic store fronts and catalogs and had them shipped direct to our new address. I could probably continue with this list but you get the picture.....

Now you may take all of these things for granted but being without them for even a short time has made me so very appreciative of the technology advances in the last 20 years. See 20 years ago while Alan's sister was living over here it was a costly phone call to catch up with them and letters were the main means of communications; actual letters on paper with postage stamps! We shipped packages to them and they received VCR tapes of recorded TV from home, there was no Internet and computers were not carried around in back packs. And I can't even imagine heading out in the car to find places without the GPS! Yes I can appreciate these advancements and they played heavily in our decision to make this move!