Once a Techie

It was around this time of year in 1983. My dad had died a couple of months earlier and Mom, used as she was to staying with us as she did often while Dad was in the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops where I lived with my husband and our two children, was with me. We were just heading out of The Bay department store in Aberdeen Mall when I saw it. I coveted it with a desire for something stronger than I had ever experienced.

I had never seen a Commodore 64 before and I wanted it. Badly. I knew we wouldn’t be able to afford it, but that only made my desire stronger. Looking back, I don’t remember specifically what it was about that 8-bit home computer that hooked me; I just knew there was something to it that I found irresistible.

For Christmas that year, my (then) husband gave me a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer, floppy disk drive, and printer. I don’t know how he managed it, other than maybe working a deal out with his employer to pay for it over time out of his wages, but it was one of the best gifts I’d received to date.

It wasn’t a Commodore 64, and I was madly jealous when a friend got one a short while later, but it turned out to be better. As soon as I could, I learned enough of the BASIC programming language to display the ubiquitous “hello world” on the TV screen I hooked up to use as a monitor, and the rest is history.

It wasn’t long before I enrolled in the math class I needed as a prerequisite to enter the Computer Systems: Operations and Management program at, what was then, Caribou College. In the fall of 1985, when my youngest started grade one, I became a full-time college student.

My mom had died suddenly from a pulmonary embolism by then, and I wondered sometimes what she would think of me leaving the home to go to school. It was a big change for our little family where things were not as they seemed from the outside, but I was taking the first steps toward becoming strong enough to leave that abusive marriage.

Two years later, I graduated with honours and entered the workforce as a computer programmer. It was the fulfillment of a dream that ignited when I first laid eyes on that Commodore 64. I loved programming. I was pretty good at it, too. Ultimately, I’d cross over from the technical side of things to a functional role as a business analyst, but I never lost my taste for technology.

Fast forward a few decades and the lure of technology still draws me. And so it was that, out of the blue one day recently, I had the brilliant (or crazy) idea to of completely redesigning my website and blog.

Earlier this year, I skinnied down my blog and moved it to a different platform where my ability to tweak things behind the scenes was severely curtailed. It’s time, I told myself. Just one more area of life that needed simplifying. And all was well until I heard the siren call of technology and decided to take back control.

And so, here we are.

With this post, I’m launching my brand new website and blog—the product of many days spent checked out of life with my head under the hood doing what I love: playing with technology. The address is the same, but the look is fresh and different. It’s almost as if you pulled up in front of a yard you’ve visited in the past and there’s a brand new house where the old, comfy one once was.

The contractor slash decorator (aka moi) who built the new home and staged it is tired. Her brains are still scrambled from all the tweaking and testing and decisions about colours and furniture placement, but she’s eager to welcome visitors to the new place and show them around.

Welcome! I’m happy you’re here!

Welcome to the new digs! I appreciate you. I don’t take lightly the fact that you come here to read my posts. Help yourself to a slice of celebration cake and take a look around. Peek in closets. If you come across any nicks in the fresh paint let me know. There’s still some minor work being done so mind your step.

We now resume regularly unscheduled programming.