Grandpa's Internet Cafe

At a recent family gathering, Dad was congratulating himself on the money he was saving on his phone bill. I was glad he was happy.

Since The Eldest was heading off to college after the last doctor visit, we decided to surprise Grandma and Grandpa with a visit. They were delighted to see the grandkids, and the girls happily suffered through the hugs and kisses and then escaped upstairs to play on Grandpa's computer.

After a half an hour of small talk, Dad decided he had to show me the modem that was installed for the FIOS. He was proud of the small, black tower with flashing lights. I was glad he was happy.

I turned my attention to the monitor.

"Oh, I don't know what that is, so I turn it off," explained Dad.

Help me, Lord! Windows was trying to update. There were so many updates, the poor CPU choked trying to keep up. The virus protection was also out of date.

When I tried to log on, his ISP informed me the account was cancelled and had to be reinstated to activate his account under FIOS which was installed last month.

"You haven't turned the machine on since the technician was here, have you." I meant it as a statement of fact and not a question.

"No."

I tried to re-establish the account so the virus shield could be updated. Course, we were running late so I couldn't see it to the end. I made a note to arrive early next Tues. before I have to take Ma to the foot doctor.

Himself stopped the other day to mow the lawn. While there, he had a brilliant idea. He told Dad because of the FIOS, the way to turn the machine on and off was to push the button on the monitor. This way, the machine would always be running to do Windows updates and the virus shield.

Since Dad doesn't really use the computer, if you are in the area, I invite you to park in front of Dad's house. You'll have a ready Wi-Fi hot spot. Fire up your laptop and follow the wizard to establish the network connection. Welcome to Grandpa's Internet Café!