Hereafter? Is there one, with Technology?

That's what I'm thinking about calling him. Hereafter. Yes, Him, this new Chevy HHR of mine.

Not really. It's not quite right but I have to say I think I may love this car.

I don't know anything about cars, and I care less. I don't know why.

So, when I sat down at my computer and perused Carmax, I put in the price point, the area and for giggles... satellite radio capable. I don't have a clue what's possible with a car these days.

Three cars popped up. One, I don't remember. 'Hereafter' was the second and there was a Canary yellow Cobalt, described as a Coupe. I had to look that up.... it means two doors. So, I talked to my Happy Homosexual and told him the choices. Coupe meant nothing to him either. When I told him, he said, 'You don't want that. You have a dog and what if you get work again, planting flowers? No room to 'grow'.

So, it was the Hereafter.

Well, it took the Hereafter forever to get here from Milwaukee. Though I had planned work around the Hereafter... had gone to work early on Monday, when the Hereafter was to arrive in order to meet it with plenty of time to spare.... it did not come. And so, yesterday I went to work with all intentions of being there all day.

My salesman called within an hour of my shift. The Hereafter had arrived and was waiting for me. For financial reasons, I needed to heed the call, and I lost almost a day's pay... but, up I went.

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Aside: I have an Android phone. J was a lunatic when it came to new technology, and it was one of the last gadgets he got us.... well, before he left 'us'. It has always seemed to me that the same things that were done 'yesterday' could be done 'today' in the same way we did them 24 hours before; 2 years before. In other words, stick to your guns. I have friends that hate email, one that doesn't text and a myriad that has less of a clue of what's possible than I do.

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I AM HERE TO TELL YOU, I couldn't have gotten through selling the Jeep and owning the Hereafter, without that phone. I had to go to Carmax without all the information I needed. Most of it was at home on a piece of paper... the way I do things.

I found myself texting, emailing, calling people, looking up things on the internet, finding info I'd saved in various places. The sale took four hours and would have been much longer if I hadn't had that 'phone' in my hand.

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As a quiet writer, I sometimes want the world to be how I know/knew it. But, you know, my grandparents and my parents fought for their reality, and lost. I will, too. So will you. It's what we were taught that matters. This was a refresher course I got recently....

Christmas Day. All forty-something's... plus, except for one. He was in his mid-twenties. He saw the magic and wonder we had created and commented on it. He'd never experienced it before. I saw his face. It was awestruck. But the habit kicked in and the eyes scanned the phone and the thumb began to move. Texting and tweeting and searching Facebook.

At one point, I gave him a look and he said, 'Okay. I'll stop'. I told him to go on. His was a new reality and I was learning something.

But later, he did stop and we took a walk. And we talked.

Somehow, someone taught him well.... to respect the moment, and/or who you are with...... and to relish the moment.

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I relished several moments getting my hands on the Hereafter... but it was Christmas Day that taught me that how technology is described, and how you teach the user of it, is what matters.

It's the soul of the user of the machine that moves you forward.