Got back home this afternoon. Going home is complex in our time, we were only away for one day, but it is quite astonishing how many e-mails, messages, notifications, packages, letters and cards were waiting for us, along with the usual crew of donkeys, barn cat, dogs and chickens.

I hate to think what would have been waiting for us if we had been gone longer. There is a great expectation of instant communications, and much of it takes on a life of its own. We talk along in our home about how to manage all of this, how to find time with it all turned off, sometimes there are hundreds of messages waiting in my queue and people assume I am on Facebook all day waiting for them. I’m not sure what the answer is. I finally got my Nexus 7 tablet, it took a week of phone calls to Google. They always answered the phone, but no one seemed to know what to say or do about my tablet, which didn’t work.

I finally got someone who wanted to help and he figured out what no one had sent my case along to the warranty department, which had to approve returns and new tablets. This took a week-and-a-half and the tablet finally arrived today. Just turned it on, I like it a lot so far, haven’t figure it all out yet, it is quite different than Apple. I am looking to see if it can serve the functions of my Ipad. Will this simplify life or further complicate it? When it comes to tech support, Google is not Apple, that much is already clear.