I walked down to the Piggly Wiggly this afternoon to buy some eggs and buttermilk. I also wanted some lemon juice to make some lemonade. As I was standing in the check out line, just about to fork over my money, the cash register froze up. The girl looked at me as though she didn’t know what to do. The drawer was open but the screen had gone blank. She couldn’t figure out how much change to give me. I said, “53 cents, please” And she didn’t trust me to be exact. I told her the total and she agreed. I told her I had given her a 5 and 1 dollar bill. So that made 53 cents in change back. I knew then that this would get complicated and the line grew behind me. The longer the line, the more flustered the girl got. At first I was aggravated then that feeling turned to just feeling sorry for her.
The manager came over and they had a conference in front of me. He stared passively at the screen looking perplexed. “How about reboot it?” I asked. He then turned in off and then back on and it started up normally and at the screen it was on when it locked up. Bill Gates strikes again. I am sure it was running some rendition of WindowsNT or 2000.
If we didn’t have electricity tomorrow, I am sad to say the world would be crippled. The store clerks cannot make change in their heads. The gas pumps would not run. The masses would scream in horror as they could not catch the latest episode of survivor. I would be at a loss without me computer as well. Electricity goes on in the background often not noticed. Today, made me realize how much I and the world are dependent upon it. It made me feel kind of scared too. We are all one blackout away to having to drastically change out lives.
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