Middle-aged and savvy…

July 10th, 2024

… or maybe I should title it “Middle-aged but savvy”? No matter, it works both ways, so anyways — it was bound to happen sooner or later. And it happened so soon that when it happened half an hour ago, I was taken aback by the whole situation. I was at the store when a young and cute-as-a-button cashier started to explain to me that I should install one of the other apps for their store because I could save even more with it. She started the whole speech by explaining to me what an app is and what benefits it can bring to me and my savings — even though I already scanned one before paying. I was a little shocked to say anything to her spiel, even though I wanted to say that I had been using apps since she was in diapers… So in the end I just nodded my head and left. Left as a middle-aged man who might need to be explained by the younger generation about modern technology. That actually hurt a little.

I am and I look like a (well-preserved) middle-aged man. I am 50 years old, so that shouldn't be surprising. Yet, from my experience, I know better and navigate myself better through modern convenience and technology than a LOT of much younger people. I love gadgets and I like convenience and I like to find a way to make something work when the official option is to throw money at the problem. I grew up building my own gaming PCs and setting them up for gaming experiences on processors worse than an average phone has today. And I still like to tweak my electronic tools a little here or a little there.

Also, sometimes I feel like a pirate, a successful pirate at that.

But anyway, maybe it was just my interpretation of the situation since, as I mentioned, the cashier was cute as a button… It seems that it is possible that she was just helpful to the extent that her company requires her to be and all that is just a projection from my mind with regards to me getting older, and turning 50 this year. And I know I haven't come to terms with the fact that I am 50 years old.