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Readers, welcome to our new, newspaper world

By Cathy Gripka - | Sep 8, 1999

Well, here we are, at long last. For those of you who have dropped by the new Mirror office at 520 E. Fourth St., right next door to the post office, you’ve seen the stages of development our physical facilities have undergone in the past month.

And in some ways, it has seemed to me, the more organized and prepared the office has become, the less organized and prepared I have become. The kids are complaining about missed meals, the dogs have chewed up their toys in frustration because I’m not home when I should be to walk them and the laundry . . . well, we won’t go there. Let’s just say it has become easier to go out and buy new socks than to locate and wash the dirty ones hiding under the sofas.

I have carried bags of files and notebooks full of story ideas everywhere I go. My nickname may change from “The Bag Lady” to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” because the weight of my many bags is starting to affect my posture. My shoulders will never be the same.

I have heard so many suggestions of things we ought to do in the paper that it will take us a year just to get to them all, and that’s if I don’t lose any of my little notebooks first. The ideally organized executive would have entered all these ideas in a specially marked file on his or her computer, but I keep misplacing my files when I try that. They’re there, but from time to time I can’t be sure where they’ve gone.
Which raises an interesting subject, for me at least. With this latest endeavor, I have acquired a nifty little laptop computer, which I love.
It goes with me just about everywhere except shopping and to the grocery store. The thing that worries me is, given my low level of computer skills, I fear I don’t know even one tiny part of what the computer is capable of doing and so am underusing it. The poor thing probably feels neglected, like the genius whose only job in life is to open and close a hotel door.

This computer is constantly surprising me with things it can do (that I can’t do). I have a feeling that even my cats are more computer-savvy than I am, and that does cause me some concern.

But regardless of my lack of technical skills in this computer age, I have to confess that I have been enjoying our new offices immensely. We have a lot of company during the day, from our well-wishers and the curious and folks with news stories and ideas. No sooner does one person leave than someone else shows up.

We do keep the coffee pot on and the front door open, and usually there’s something to snack on up front where Terylan Walker, our office manager, is holding down the fort. We hope to see a lot more smiling faces as time goes on.

This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful relationship with our hometown. I know we can count on a frank and honest interchange of ideas, and I promise that even if I have to buy a lot more socks, doggie bones and carry-out meals, I’ll give this project all the time and attention it deserves. I am bound to learn more about the computer, too, even if it’s by accident.