lost it

From the living room, while I was having lunch, perhaps our oldest regular visitor to the CAO said, "Blake, I'm having a problem..." She was talking about, once again, her computer, or some digital device, which was baffling her.

She plunked her netbook down in front of me. Sheesh. I was eating! "I just downloaded Stellarium and I'm trying to install it but I'm getting this error message and I don't know if I should install it."

I snapped. "Why did you download Stellarium?!"

"You told me to."

We had chatted about downloading last weekend and I had explained to her that we were getting hit with severe overage charges from our wireless internet service provider. She told me that she cancelled her internet service at home because she intended to use our service here. I was somewhat shocked by this. I discouraged her from doing this. I suggested she take advantage of her local coffee shop and library. I had asked her to cease and desist downloading at the Carr observatory. It seemed as though she had completely forgotten this conversation. After she downloaded iTunes in the morning, I had—again—asked her to stop doing this.

"No I didn't!" I exclaimed. "I told you to not do large downloads here at the CAO. Stop downloading stuff. You're killing me!"

I must have scared her off. She retreated to the living room.

After I finished my lunch and after washing the dishes, I headed to the living room. I sat beside her. Having cooled off a little, I wanted to talk to her. I modulated my tone. I spoke quietly. I explained again that we had paid hundreds of dollars in additional fees for overusage fees at the CAO. That we needed all members to avoid large downloads. Now and going forward. I asked her to plan large downloads are her home. No streaming video or audio. Assured her that reading the newspaper and sending and receiving email was fine—expected.

I think she understood this time...

Maybe I will have to enforce logins.