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["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

Remember that as new technology improves or is invented that the older stuff
becomes cheaper. Good, used models can be found. Thank heavens. Our
telephone compnay, a monopoly in the area that I usually rail against
because of their high rates, just doubled our DSL speed as of Jan. 1st--for
free--because they have upgraded and what was the next step up (double
speed) is now bottom of the line. I didn't even know until I opened up the
bill to pay it and then learned. We needed DSL because I was still doing
mortgage loans when I moved my office home last summer (to download
cumbersome rate sheets from several companies). I kept getting disconnected
when I was connected at 33000 bps.

We have DirecTV--which we find expensive--but my hubby also has an NFL habit
and this is our luxury. It's nice to watch PBS without any fuzz or snow
going through the channel. Then we really gave in and bought TiVo, but that
has been great. Have recorded the whole Michael Palin series on the
Himalaya's.

We don't have any other modern techie gadgets; no blackberries, ipods, mp3s
etc., but they look like fun. We got a dvd player this past year and
converted to cd's a few years ago, though hubby still prefers vinyl. Most
new music, if not all, is not offered in vinyl period. We joke that we might
get our oldest son an ipod for his 18th birthday a year from now before he's
ready to leave home. For 10+ years we've had a "no battery" rule, letting
parents/siblings know that we prefer gifts that don't use batteries and it
took a while, but they are all on board. The boys can't stand it, they think
their parents are so old-fashioned and it would be the ultimate joke to give
our son something modern that required batteries--as he was about to leave
home. Bet we can find a good, used older model by then. Since I learned
about those college lectures available on ipod--makes for a better reason to
have one now. And that would be a good reason to allow him online.

Our kids have grown up with all this technology and they think they are so
deprived because their parents either don't allow it or allow it very
sparingly (i.e. computer time). I recall my parents being the same way, but
I can't recall what it was I was deprived of. I had the earliest curfew, I
remember that.