By Charlotte Byus
Most people have converted their whole life to a file and/or their phone. You know there is an app for that? I love paper. As a young bookkeeper everything in my working world was on paper. Most was 13 columns and a Big eraser and I must say I loved it, except when I transposed a number. Forty lines down and 13 across and you have to find 19 instead of 91, that is why I have so much grey hair, LOL. I must say when lotus came out I think I dropped to my knees and said Thank You, Lord! For those of you that are too young, Lotus came before Excel and do not get me started on how much I love Excel, let me count the ways. But with saying that, I print out my worksheet every month.

Anyway, every year at Christmas I follow the family tradition of sending cards to friends and family. Once again I love it. It is a time for me to remember our friendship and happy memories. You know those people that you lived nex tdoor to in your first home or the people across the street that babysat your babies when you worked? I love hearing from them and finding out how their children and grandchildren are doing. With the exception of those that have left us, I still try to carry on this tradition. The cards coming in are getting less and less. Now I know some of the folks are on Facebook and I know when the grandchildren have children, but once again, I love paper.

I have a kindle, but I still love paperbacks, I have an app for my grocery list but I still have ruled paper to write down stuff as I run out. If I was really smart I would use the grocery app and my paper because I am going to leave one on the kitchen counter. To tell the truth I have left both at home. Just ask my friends who try to call me, I either have forgotten to charge my phone, left it at home, or in the car for days. As you well know at that point they call RR.

I have That Person in the dashboard that lies to us about a direction and I must say I always get us out of her mess with my trusty paper map. Nowadays, most instruction booklets are on line, guess what, I print them, punch holes and file them in a binder. I know, where we live I really don’t have that much room for paper storage but I do it anyway. I fuss all the time about all the paper that is wasted that comes in the mail, “There must be two trees in this junk!” Lord knows how many trees I have wasted over the years, maybe a whole forest.

With this being said, here’s my New Years Resolution: Use less paper. If it goes the way all my other resolutions have gone, I’ll keep using paper. I think last year I said I was going to lose 15 pounds, well that didn’t happen.

Ya’ll have a great and safe New Year.
Hug your children.
Be nice to those tacky people even if you don’t want to.

[12-26-2017]