The Internet

Little did I know in 1996 that I would become an internet addictive.
I was beginning to think that it was time to close my store.
Competition at that time was fearce, 14 other antique dealers within a mile radius.
Some went to the family as soon as they read the obituaries and asked to handle their estate sales.
It was doggie dog and I did not fit anymore.
I knew I would have to work but where?
I had a shop full of stock, 27 years in one place, you can't help but have goodies and
junkies.
I was at a cross road.
To quote Yogi (was it?) when you get to a cross road take it! (or something like that).
I did not even see one road let alone two.

My son had a WebTV , very popular at the time. Not expensive and it was a new tool for a new generation. I did not think that I would EVER get into THAT.
One evening I was invited over for a demonstration of his new toy.
Young Bob showed me the infant Ebay.
WOW, you mean you can just put something up for sale on here and people in Kansas
will buy it? Yup! Get with it Mom. Start by listing Beanie Babies.
You do not need photos and you can do it all from a WebTV.

Next was where to get Beanie Babies, I had asked to be able to buy them when I was at
the Atlanta Mart and they refused me, they had to come and check out my store first.
They were showing right across from the German Steiff.
Their rep told me :"this is a fad but we will still be around when they are gone!"
So....no beanies in my shop.

I started to stand in line at 4 am in stores who had announced they would have a load when they opened. Husband and I filled our baskets with the allotted ones and went on to the next stop.
I sold hundreds of Beanies with often a great profit and I was HOOKED on Ebay.

The rest is history , I have 5900 feedback with 100 % positive.
I am damn proud of that.

So that was one phase of the internet.
Soon I started to blog about Alzheimer and was even paid by one company for my blogs.
I started to write to different people and thanks to the contacts I did discover a
whole new world.

Thanks to writers in WOWOW I got a nudge on where to apply for a pension with the VA
something the social worker had not told me.
That changed our income and is a great help for us.
Then I got medication at the VA too.

I became email friends with people that I will probably never meet.
I have a new friend in Chicago, a very bright, my age (young) , published writer.
She is always in a good mood and always brings me UP. She writes me
every day and how much I do learn from her attitude and her many travels.
I am now interested (like her) in Antartica. Wish I could take a trip there too.

I have emails from people who have it so much worse than I ever did.
Makes you take notice. One friend has polio,is blind, and now faces breast cancer.
How can one still write funny notes with all that?

I find the right kind of Japanese snails which clean my water feature without chemicals.
I found worm droppings (you read it right) terrific for my garden without chemicals.
I google every question which comes into my mind and what I still learn every day
is just such a blessing.

Old Bob's old buddies write me emails about when they were young.
How great to have their memories shared from a time I did not know him.

I am on my 4th computer. Worn them all out.
Worn out 2 cameras.
My latest is a jewel.
When I sell on eBay I use a LOT of photos so it is not unusual on a given week
to have used 500 pictures or more.

My only regret about this internet business is that it came too late to get my mother involved with it. She passed on before I knew about it. She was very smart and she would have
written me every day. She would never have bought on eBay. She was from the school that she had to feel it and see it in person.

Now I am sold on the computer but I stop there.
The gadgets my children have I can';t handle and do not need.
Ipod, MP3 or 4 or 5, Portable DVD , blue tooth, Blackberry or is it Blueberry?
None of this for me anymore.
I stop somewhere and it is with this baby who helped me write this bunch of
stuff which no one cares to hear anyway.