Beech Tree News Network

One day at work, we went the whole day without receiving one penny in cash for services rendered.  A few people paid with checks, but most payments were by credit card.  I’m sixty years old, I’ve run a cash register at every place I’ve ever worked, and I’ve never had that happen until one day last week.  The odd thing is that it probably isn’t going to be that odd in a few years. 
Most things are done electronically now.  If I need a phone number for a business, I usually pick up my phone and look for their Facebook page rather than thumb through the phone book.  Online has been good to me, except when it hasn’t been, and when it hasn’t been, nothing can frustrate me more.
A couple of weeks ago, I met a girl at our business who didn’t have a cell phone.  She was in her mid-thirties.  There was a time when I would have viewed such a person as one who was out of touch with the modern era.  As I was typing in her home phone number as part of her information, I felt a twinge of envy.  I almost asked her how she got by without one, but I didn’t want her to feel singled out, so I didn’t.  In years to come, she will probably be sought out to write a how-to manual.  I say this because of the frustration I see mounting against technology on a daily basis.  I see a push back in our future. 
As I type this, I have 142 emails I need to clear out of my account.  That’s just one account, I have two.  I have two because I’m trying to say goodbye to my AOL account, because they’ve decided to charge me $15.99 per month.  This means I am now paying to scroll through endless notifications about reduced prices on flea and tick meds, trampoline repair kits and adult diaper solutions. 
My emails also alert me to the fact that I need to go online and manage my Valvoline account, my AT&T account and my Chase credit card account.  I have enough trouble in the real world.  I can barely manage to get my granddaughter to school in the mornings and back to work on time. The last thing I want to do is go online and manage a virtual account.
When I stepped back into the job in the office at New Image Car Care, I kept getting calls from our uniform people and our security alarm people telling me our monthly payment was late.  “I haven’t gotten a bill,” I said.  Turns out, they were billing me online.  I requested paper billing.  It’s not that I don’t know how to pay bills online.  I have personal accounts set up like that, because some companies refuse to send out paper billing, but my preference is paper.  I think it’s because when you pay something online, there’s no sense of accomplishing anything, and there’s no evidence in black and white that the job is complete.  With paper billing, you have a nice little stack of white, stamped envelopes ready to be taken to the post office.
I’ve gotten good at ordering things online, especially useless stuff from Amazon.com, but sometimes I get overwhelmed at the information overload and things go awry.  I have to special order air filters online from Valvoline for our business.  That’s still a nightmare for me.  A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally duplicated the order, so now we have several air filters for the ’87 Ford Bronco—not sure how much call we’re gonna have for that.
When I’m standing at a register and someone hands me cash, it’s like a ray of sunshine.  The financial advisor, Dave Ramsey, says cash is emotional.  He’s right.  Cash is also definite, and because it is definite, it is consistent.  I never look at a twenty dollar bill and wonder how I’m going to figure out what code I need to use in order to enter it into the computer.  I feel confident with cash.  I think it’s the question mark that accompanies online transactions that frustrates me.  There’s always the “did I do that right?” that pops into my brain, and if it isn’t the uncertainty, it’s the guilt: I should be managing my account; I should be ordering that plastic weld kit so I can fix Sabria’s doll; I haven’t downloaded that free digital movie from Amazon Prime. 
Dave Ramsey also said of cash, “If you don’t tell your money what to do, it will leave you and go to someone who will tell it what to do.”
I wish the same were true of technology.  I’d send somebody else my AOL account to manage.