Email Without A Computer

No, I'm not talking about going to the library and using their computers. I am talking about an email machine. I am talking about a very simple machine that takes away the frustration of learning computers and takes away the fear of getting spam or viruses.

The Mailbug is the ideal solution for your grandparents who want to keep in touch, those who want to communicate but have hearing problems, or just those who refuse to be dragged into the computer age.

The Mailbug does one thing and it does it well. It sends and receives email on a regular phone line. It is a subscription based email service through the Landel company. You can pay for the subscription monthly or quarterly (I believe) or even yearly.

Mailbug does not send or receive attachments of any kind. That may seem like a bad thing, but in the case of my own mother-in-law, she would not know how to send an attachment or open a received attachment anyway so it is a non issue for her.

My mother-in-law has had her Mailbug for about 4 years now and loves it. She relies heavily on it for keeping in touch with family members and it delights her to feel part of the computer age by being able to send emails from her simple machine.

The Mailbug has no graphics. It is a straight, text only screen and generally you would not print from it although if you do want to print, the machine will print to a fax machine.

The Mailbug never interrupts calls on your phone line. You type your email and then the Mailbug will wait and send all your emails when the line is free.

Actually the Mailbug does do one other thing, it does receive news, weather, stock and lottery information.

You can get a Mailbug on Amazon, which is the lowest price I have seen. And then you can go to the Landel website to set up your subscription. This is a wonderful Christmas gift. My mother-in-law is still thanking me for hers!

 Landel Mailbug

Shopping for the Tree and Meeting "El Arabe"

I know I wasn’t very old, maybe five years old, when our family drove down to a tree lot in Crystal City one December to pick out a Christmas tree. This was before my youngest brother Robert was even born.

The tree lot was near the intersection of 7^th Ave. and Lake Street and it was my first memory of not only picking out a Christmas tree, it was also my first memory of seeing our town’s homeless man.  This man known as Assi Alli, or “El Arabe” was of Lebanese heritage and went around town picking up trash. There was a lot of mystery about Assi Alli. It is believed he took to the streets after a personal tragedy. One of the stories is that his wife left him for another man, but there were many stories and no one knows which, if any of them, were true.

Assi Alli always wore a little United States flag in his hat and was often seen praying towards Mecca. 

Townspeople often gave him food and more were kind to him than not.

That first time I saw him though, I was only a little girl, and to me, this old man in disheveled clothes and gray hair and beard, muttering something in what sounded like another language, frightened me.  He did wave, but I inched closer to my mother.

My parents, my sister, brother and I continued to look around at all the trees but I kept a watchful eye for that man that waved at me.

We had started at the front of the lot and worked our way back, looking at an endless number of tall, short, skinny and fat trees. Some were too smushed on one side or had some other deformity. It seemed to take forever.

Mom and Dad didn’t seem to like any of the trees. Finally though we walked back to the front of the lot and Yep, you guessed it, they chose the first tree they had laid their eyes on, paid for the tree, and then the lot attendant helped Dad tie the tree to the luggage rack on top of the station wagon and we drove home.

Ribbon Candy

As a kid, my absolute least favorite thing to get in my Christmas stocking each year was the old fashioned ribbon candy. I hated that stuff and yet that was one of the things, along with an apple, an orange, some nuts and a few other things, that we got every year.

 

Years later, mom and I were talking about Christmas and I mentioned not liking the ribbon candy and she said well she always got it because it was cheap! I told her I should return the favor and buy her a huge box of the stuff as a Christmas gift! I seriously planned to do it as a joke, until I saw that the cheap candy was now no longer cheap and cost a little too much to buy as a joke and then just throw away.
Even so, ribbon candy kind of became a traditional thing of the non edible kind, when I found ribbon candy ornaments to hang on my tree. 

 

What was once something I dreaded, is now a fond and funny memory.

Some people love ribbon candy and you can still buy it. It has been so long since I have had any I don't know if I would still dislike it or not. In any case, here is a link for a place to order it: 

 

Ribbon Candy - Vermont Country Store