Mother’s Day will be here in just a couple of hours. It’s going to be a chilly, rainy day that we will spend inside, for the most part. Elegant Mother loves lobster. Unfortunately, her appetite is so small now that she can not eat an entire lobster tail at one sitting. We discovered that Red Lobster has smaller lobster tails, so we offered to take her there for dinner. One of my sisters will be joining us, so there should be something new added to our table talk.
It can be difficult to decide what to get Elegante Mother for Mother’s Day. In the past we have resorted to gift certificates to book stores, to hobby stores, or to nurseries. Sometimes the gift is a day out, or a special meal on a weekend. This time we broke our own rule and bought her something electronic.
I was shopping on Thursday at a office supply store and found a variety of digital picture frames were available. The one I wanted, the simplest of those offered, had been sold out, but they were able to ship it to us from the warehouse the very next day. Voilà! Instant gift!
I purchased several flash drives on Thursday, and spent some time Friday night transferring pictures to them. One was Red Hat Lady pictures that I wanted to share with the Queen of our chapter. That was quite fortuitous, as they asked me to take pictures of everyone who attended the meeting today, so that we could create a photo book of our members. It will all fit on the same drive. I plan to repeat the picture taking next month, to try to get pictures of those who were absent today.
On the second drive, I’m going to collect all the shots I’ve taken of our exercise class over the past two years. I can take the flash drive to one of the pharmacies or discount stores and have a set of the pictures printed and put it into an album for our leader. I’m not a terribly good photographer, but I’d be happy to make copies of the prints for my classmates, if they wish.
And we come to that last flash drive. I selected a range of pictures from the family computer and moved them to the flash drive. I have more pictures on the office computer, but I’ll have to shift those to a disk, and transfer them to the family computer because all the USB ports already have connections in the office. Who knew when we bought it that we would want more ports!??
The digital picture frame is very easy to use (once you get the power supply connected properly.) With the flash drive, it will hold tons of photos, and can be set to shift at a variety of speeds. Best of all, I can give others in my family flash drives to fill, and we can swap the drives every now and then so EM can see all of her family.
We plan to surprise her with it tomorrow. I’ll make breakfast and plug the frame in while she’s out of her sitting room. I can show her the on/off button. It’s all she needs to know! *G* I hope it’s a hit!.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
You are a glutton for punishment if you are willing to fight the Mother’s Day crowd to take your EM to lunch, today. More power to you!
You need an octopus USB port. I don’t know what they are really called, but you can plug in one (male) end of the device and it has a few or several (female) USB ports that you can plug stuff into. I’ve not checked to see how switching works among the female ports.
Did she like it? I am not sure I have seen what you are describing. Do you mean a picture fame where the pictures change at intervals? If so I shall look out for one myself as it might be an idea for my own mother.
Cop Car, I think my stepson was trying to describe something like an “octopus” USB port. I don’t know how much longer we will be using this particular computer, but it seems like a worthwhile expense, given the variety of duties we ask it to perform. It would make things SO much easier for me.
Braving the crowds at 4:30 in the afternoon wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be. We were told that we’d have a 90 minute wait, and were prepared to sit and chat as we waited. Ultimately, it was more like 25-30 minutes. I suppose other people on the waiting list decamped without letting the management know the were leaving. The meal was wonderful, and Elegante Mother was very happy!
She LOVED it, Adele! She had seen a deluxe model at My-Sister-The-Nurse’s home, and had been hoping someone would give her one for the past year and a half! I’ve asked my family members to send me memory sticks or disks with pictures so that we can play a variety of them for her. The model we picked is very simple to use, and Mother’s getting the hang of it already. We can download a small number of pictures onto the frame, or we can insert a memory stick which holds a MUCH larger number of photos.
Surf at Amazon.uk to see what’s available over there, or check out the discount, electronic or office stores to see what you can find. I bet you’d really enjoy it. You have great pictures of your family!
Hmmm, I shall have to investigate this further. There’s a long time to Christmas as my mother’s birthday and Mothering Sunday were both over in March.
The only problem with this is if she has to do anything to it. As she has got older she has lost all abilities to use any technological equipment. She now needs help even to turn on her tv or change channels.
Adele, don’t wait. Buy the simplest model you can find and set it up for her. Perhaps a kind care giver will turn it on for her each day, and it can be left to run until she is helped to bed. Pack it with pictures of your family and places you have visited. The pictures might transport her to happier times. Once it’s ready to go, there won’t be much effort to use it, and it seems to be a great gift. Elegant Mother is really looking forward to the other pictures which might come her way.
Good idea. I’ll have to look around for one.