The collapse and death of my faithful old desktop computer and its replacement by a new, up-to-date laptop made me come to realize how much I depend on computers. I begin and end each day at the computer and spend most of the hours in between there as well. I keep this blog, to which I usually contribute daily, on the computer, and the vast majority of my correspondence is by email rather than the post office, but even my letters are composed at the computer. My job is writing—I’m an author by trade—and I do all my writing on the computer. I now have six books and 17 short stories in print, all written at the computer keyboard.
But I’m a terrible typist. Back in the days when I was in high school, only girls were allowed to take typing courses. So I taught myself to type—by the hunt-and-peck method, which I still use. That means that virtually every sentence has typos. The Microsoft Word software that I use these days automatically corrects some errors and flags others so that it is easy to find and rectify them. Fixing my mistakes as I go along is par for the course.
It wasn’t until I didn’t have a computer for a couple of days that I realized how much of my time is spent using that machine. It’s true that I read from books and the newspaper every day. I have the household chores that everyone has, cooking, cleaning, gardening. And I work out with weights every other day. Those activities take up far less than half my time. All the rest of my waking hours are spent working at a computer.
I have no complaints. I now have machine that is up-to-the-minute in capabilities and conveniences. Writing has never been easier.
Tom Glenn, Writer 