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   I am not a technology-minded person nor am I a mechanic. When I am in need of a vehicle, I look for something that will get me from point A to point B. I want my transportation to firstly, run when I need it to run without my having to wrench on it, and secondly, I want it to fulfill this basic job without having a bunch of extra things that will eventually quit working requiring someone other than me to fix it. I do not need my vehicle to tell me if I am within fifty feet of the car ahead of me, I can look out of the windshield and see that. If I can not see that, I probably should not be driving. I do not need to have sensors on all four tires to tell me if they are flat. I was taught many years ago to look at your tires before you start your vehicle to see if they are flat. This seems like a more fool proof way of finding a flat tire than waiting for an electronic indicator to inform you of the problem.

   We currently are in possession of vehicles ranging from low tech to extremely high tech. We have the farm truck that has a minimal number of bells and whistles. It is a 1999 pickup truck. The only advanced electronics it has is an indicator light that says check engine. When it first came on in 2001, I checked the engine, and it was still there. The light has remained on for the past 24 years, so I feel safe in assuming the light being lit is not too significant. It does not look as good as it once did after having had a cow charge into the one side and a few other minor mishaps, but it is uncomplicated.

   My wife traded for her vehicle a couple of years ago. The advancement in technology from the farm truck to her SUV is amazing and confusing. Her vehicle will do things I did not know needed to be done. I do not drive her SUV very often so have never learned all the buttons and alarms it has. One day, while driving it down the highway, an alert came on the handy little built-in television that tells everything important. The lettering of the message was not very large, so I had to concentrate a bit to read it and stay on the road. The message basically said, using a full paragraph to do so was, “do not read this message while traveling down the road.” That does make good sense not to read something that would distract a person while driving but why is it necessary to distract a person with this message. I thought it must just be a test to see if I would read it. Every once in a while, an alarm will go off letting me know I have done something wrong. Usually, I do not know what it is beeping about but I am well informed that it was not an approved maneuver. It also has a back-up camera. With three rear-view mirrors, this seems rather redundant to me. I am not one of those people that will ever rely on the back-up camera but apparently some people do. A guy in town was backing out of his parking place and was all the way out before he realized he was not in his usual vehicle and had been staring at the radio while he backed out.  Fortunately, he was in Bloomfield where we expect other drivers to do things like this. 

   It might be a sign I am getting older when I do not easily accept change. I am perfectly content to drive my old low tech pickup truck around the farm. I may only drive it as far as I am willing to walk back but it does not make beeping noises trying to tell me what to do.

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