My gf's father lives in an assisted living, and I sometimes go there with her. One afternoon, I dropped by to pick her up, but she was still busy with helping her father to the dining hall, so she gave me her laptop and asked me to wait in the library. She later brought me a cup of coffee. They serve good coffee there. (But like she said, “What are they thinking? How can the residents sleep if they have strong coffee like that?” Anyway, good coffee is good coffee, no argument with that!)
I was lucky that I found a free “Hotspot” -- my laptop was able to connect to a wireless network from the neighborhood, so I was surfing the net and reading some posts on english.com.tw :)
“Is that a computer?” asked a small-framed old lady, with her walker, standing right at the door step not far from me. She looked old but her mind sure was sharp because her voice was clear and her eyes were beaming at me; she certainly startled me.
“Uh... Yes,” I replied.
“Let me see!” she demanded and walked slowly toward me.
“Uh.... Ok...,” at the same time I looked down on the screen of my laptop and made sure there wasn't anything indecent. I then turned my laptop to her. When she reached me, she took a good look at my laptop and asked, “Is it connected?” I wasn't very sure what she meant by that. Did she mean if my computer was connected to a network, or my computer's power cord was plugged?
“Yes.” I then decided to show her the power cord. In a sense, this laptop did connect to a power socket. So I showed her the power cord. “Would you like to try?” I thought she might want to use it.
“Where does it connect to?” she said, possibly didn't hear what I said. She looked amazed.
“There,” I pointed at a power socket at the corner near me. She took another few good looks and then asked me, “Do you work here?”
“No. I'm with my gf. Her father is a resident here.”
“Do you want something to eat?”
“Oh, no, I'm fine. My gf just got me a cup of coffee,” I showed her the empty cup on an end table next to me.
“Ok, bye,” she then turned and walked away. (She might have said something else, but I can't remember.) She sure was like a whirl of wind; she came suddenly and left swiftly. Well, of course she can't move like a wind or a cougar. That would be scary. :-)
Later I mentioned her to my gf when she was back. “What does she look like?” she asked. I described the way the sharp little old lady looked to my gf. She thought a while and couldn't figure out who this lady was. “I know everyone here,” my gf was still trying to think who she might be. “Well, maybe she is new here,” I said. This place does have new residents constantly. And new vacant rooms too....
I sure hope this old lady wasn't really a “wind”.....
