Put On A Happy Face

Everyone is so excited about the Spring-type weather we are having.  I wish I could be, but MS and warm weather do NOT go together.

Wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts are nothing new to me.  I wear summer wear most of the year.  Getting out and seeing the trees and plants blooming is beautiful…….but I know that it is warm for them to be able to do this. 

I feel like a humbug!!  I would love to have the thrill of wanting Spring and Summer to come.  I would love to get out and plant a garden and be able to tend to it.  I would love to go on long walks in the warmth.  All of this is lost to me.  They are sweet memories, but will never be in my life here on earth again.

I am not complaining.  I simply say this so the people that enjoy this and don’t understand why I don’t might be more understanding.  This is life to those of us with MS.  We would love to be doing the things that you do.  But that is not in the picture for us anymore.

People have told me that I have a great attitude with all the things I go through.  I don’t see me that way.  I see someone who has chosen to enjoy the things she can still do and not think about the things she can’t.  Although dreams still pop in my head sometimes, I quickly push them away.  Dwelling on these things is what makes some bitter and unhappy.  I don’t want to be one of those people.

Life is good!  Enjoy what you can and leave the rest to those who can.  It is a simple philosophy, but hard to get started.  Thinking this way takes practice, but is well worth the effort.

No one wants to be around a whiner/complainer.  Neither do I.  Taking the time to try to set a new mindset can make all the difference in a good life and just being alive.

My heart breaks for those who dread each day.  I wish they could reach inside themselves and pull all the bad out.  I wish I could help them.  But, it is like having a drinking, drug or other problem that takes rehab to break.   We each have to make the decision to seek help or find a way to do it ourselves.  No one can do it for us.

Looking at life with rose colored glasses is not what I am saying.  There are many horrible things going on in this world that cannot be ignored.  Pushing them out of our minds will not make them go away. 

But in the case of dwelling on the problems that come with a chronic illness can be pushed away to an extent.  It is hard, but look in the mirror.  Wouldn't you rather see someone who looks pleasant, or someone who looks like they are miserable?  Everyone else wants pleasant also!!

If It Ain’t Broke…………

I am beginning to realize just how little I know about a computer. The more I try to do on this new one, the less I know.  When I try to look up “how to”, it only confuses me and makes me even more lost than I was to begin with.  It is so very frustrating.

I used my first computer while working for a law firm.  It was fun to try out this new way of doing things and learning how easy it was as compared to typing out everything by hand.  The only problem was, although I learned to use their computer fairly easily, it was not really learning how to use a computer program that would be helpful to me later.  The programs were written for legal documents and letters and did not teach basics that could be used in day to day computer use.  Luckily, when I changed jobs, it was with another law firm and my new-found skills were very useful.

My next job, however, was with The Parks and Conservation Department.  Their computers and programs were in the normal range of such thing and I was at a loss for a while of how to use them.  I was sent to classes (which basically consisted of them giving us a book and telling us to read a chapter and ask any questions we might have) to learn the basics.  Fortunately, I learned that I knew more than I thought I did and transferred my knowledge to a regular system instead of a legal system.  It worked well for me for years. Now, however, I am running into problems.

Most of the programs on this computer are in the normal range, word, excel and such.  I have my usual games and other frivolous ones as well.  I know that I have not had any computer training in years, but I have managed to maintain being able to do the things I needed to and enjoy.  It is becoming harder and harder to do this. 

Although Word is Word on most computers, both older and newer, it is beginning to be more and more complicated to do the simplest things with it.  What I used to be able to do easily, I now find quite complicated.

Like most people my age, I am not interested in going back to school to learn something all over again.  It there was something I became really interested in it would be a different story.  But this is an old thing that is something I conduct business and pleasure with and not a new exciting thing.  As such, I will just have to plow along and try to manage as best I can.

It is nice to constantly upgrade things to be able to do more and work more efficiently. But the parts that already fit into that category should be left alone.  As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!