Teaching old dogs new tricks

There is an old adage that says,"you can't teach an old dog new tricks." I probably believed this to be true most of my life, that is until I reached fifty years of age. You see most of my life I considered FIFTY to be "old" and far past the learning curves of life. When I turned fifty i had to, of course, reconsider my belief in this. We have a dog named Phoebe, my wife named her, and when she was a puppy we taught her three tricks, SIT, ROLL OVER and SPEAK. Today she is about 7 1/2 years old and can still do the 3 tricks. About a year ago I decided she should learn to shake hands (paws). For nearly 6 months I tried everything to get her to do this but to no avail. She would simply sit there and look at me like I was some kind of idiot and refused to learn the new trick.

Today I am rapidly approaching 61. Most 20 year olds would consider me acient, older than dirt, fossil like. It's true my body has a few more aches and pains than it did a few years ago but in my mind I feel like I'm 30 and in the prime of my life. But, some things have come hard for me, such as the computer. When computers first became popular I refused to join in the merriment and continued doing things the old fashioned way. What's wrong with 'writing' a letter? Email, you've got to be kidding!! Well after some time, unlike my dog, I began to learn the computer.

Just as I was getting my computer skills sharpened along came the cell phone. Who in the world would actually want to carry a phone with them?? That's nuts!!! Now I not only have a cell phone but it's a world phone that I can talk on anytime anywhere. Who would have ever 'thunk' it?

All of that leads me to this, BLOGGING. This is my second attempt at writing this same blog. The first one went somewhere but nobody can tell me where it went. I hit the 'submit' button thinking I had accomplished yet another trick but only to find it disappeared. So if it doesn't work this time my blogging career may come to an abrupt hault.

So, can you teach an old dog new tricks? Hmmmm................

-Randy Catlett

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