I should have married one of those guys who put too much tape on their broken eyeglasses and wore pocket protectors, one for every occasion. I remember watching them from my desk at an IBM subsidiary in Chicago. They obsessed over their work before a battery of hulking computers in temperature-controlled rooms. Who knows? The right man could have taught me all about Fortran and we could have lived happily ever after, but no.

I recently set aside my six-year-old Gateway in favor of a new Gateway (which I call G2) and recruited neighbor DERRICK RUCKER to help me hook it up. He later advised me to take time to get used to all the new features. When he left, I felt like a nervous babysitter watching her employer’s car disappear down the road.

The next day, Chad arrived. An expert Comcast installer, he explained what he was going to do and went straight to work. With this Comcast upgrade, I can now receive and place calls while working on the computer.

I tried not to hover or ask unintelligent questions or make a pest of myself. Then I blurted out, “Want a bottle of water?” He did.

I kept out of sight by washing the same dish over and over again. Then I heard a noise from the back of the house. “Are you OK?” He was.

When he was about to leave, he handed me the new remote. Pointing to a telephone number on the work order, he said, “Call them if you have trouble.” he said.

By Saturday morning, I was awash in self-pity. Derrick was away for the weekend, Chad went home to his wife of two weeks and I was alone with a computer that mocked me.

In a rare moment of clarity, I remembered my faithful Apple at the newspaper office and reached for my car keys. Maybe by the time I get home, Mr. Fancy Pants New Gateway will have learned to play nice with others.

Beauty starts young

When a hotel owner in Atlantic City wanted guests to stay a little longer, he came up with the idea of putting attractive young women on a stage and presenting beauty pageants. Contests were only discontinued from 1929-1932 because of the Great Depression.

Pageants for kids began in the 1960s. Some say they teach children that being pretty is the only option for popularity and success. Others say pageants instill confidence and poise. The debate goes on.

North Whidbey’s MERCEDES HALL, 6, has been to four pageants this year, won nine trophies and two crowns while at three events in Seattle and in Butte, Mont., on Memorial Day.

Her mother CHRISTINA HALL, a Navy enlisted woman, said Mercedes is looking forward to starting first grade in a few weeks. She is already busy as a cheer leader and Girl Scout.

They want to thank the local businesses, more than 30 of them, who lent financial support. “Mercedes is so outgoing, she actually spoke to the managers and asked them to contribute,” said Christina. She is turning to the donors to deliver thank you cards and a photo from the last competition.

One fateful day

It may take a year or more to figure what went wrong and three years to rebuild. Healing the people of Minneapolis and surrounding communities will take much longer. It is amazing anyone survived the collapse of the heavily traveled and hazardous bridge.

NINA WALLSTEAD who lives in Chanhassen, Minn., a suburb about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis, emailed, “The bridge that collapsed is so extensively traveled, everyone who lives in the Twin Cities metro area realizes any of us could have been there at the wrong moment.”

Nina tells of having dinner with her family before going to pick up son Nathan. returning from a three-day trip to Wisconsin. “When our waiter presented the bill, he asked if we had heard what happened,” she continued. “He then filled us in on the bridge collapsing, and said there was a bus full of kids dangling precariously. We mentioned that our son was on a bus on his way home from a trip with our church and the waiter’s face turned white. We drove straight to the church parking lot.

“When the bus pulled up, we all sighed with relief and clapped. Our kids couldn’t understand why we hugged them extra hard until we explained everything. Then we gave prayers of thanks and prayed for those who died or were injured.”

Mothers have support group

Be all that you can be, especially if you are a mom.

Mothers of Preschoolers is for stay-at-home and working moms, teens, single and married moms and their children. They meet at Concordia Lutheran Church where registration is under way for Wednesday and Thursday meetings. The first meetings this season are set for Wednesday, Sept. 12 and Thursday, Sept. 13, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., to be followed by meetings on Wednesday, Sept. 19 and Thursday, Sept. 20. Then from October through May, Wednesday meetings will be held on the first week of the month, Thursday on the third week of the month. The fall semester costs $55.

If you love children and have time on your hands, you might make an excellent volunteer.

Call 679-1927 or 675-3559. MOPS registration forms and information may also be found at www.orgsites.com/wa/mops

concordia.

I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Call 675-6611 or write to me at lifeonwhidbey@yahoo.com.