April 1, 2010
Netbook Travel
Portland Firefly has entered the gadget age…. A little bit behind the times as far as some may be concerned but just right in timing as far as Firefly is concerned.
It all started with the cancer diagnosis that I received seven –has it been seven months already??– months ago. When I went to Chemo, I noticed that Northwest Cancer Specialists offered free WiFi there to help pass the time spent in the Chemo recliners. I started to think that a laptop might be a good investment for a budding writer, but that is as far as it went.
Starting to feel a little bit better as my Chemo was winding down (or so I thought) I decided to plan a few trips. I felt it was better to take them now and so as the plans for a trip evolved so did my decision that yes I was ready for a laptop. Ah, but things just got better when I asked my own personal Tech Maven (my Daughter) what she would suggest as a laptop for me. After asking me a few pertinent questions, she suggested that I might really like one of the new smaller notebooks.
She had one that she offered to let me borrow for a while to help me make my decision. It was not needed because the more research I did regarding the new smaller netbooks, the more convinced I became that it was in fact the perfect solution to my travel computing needs.
And so I purchased a beautiful ‘pearl white’ netbook. My Tech Maven suggested that I ‘personalize’ it with some stickers so it would be less desirable to another person should I ‘forget’ it somewhere. Good Idea. So I ‘girlied’ it up with a flora decal right on the top of the netbook. No guy will claim that it’s his!!! And since I would be traveling with it, I decided that I’d better put my name on it; and so I did. Only I used my return address labels (floral again!) and put them in hidden places on the netbook. I also ‘labeled’ every single piece of cable that came with it as well as my phone and charger, camera and charger…..you get the idea!!!
This post was actually started 6 months ago and I just realized that I never published it. And so now I am 13 months after my cancer diagnosis and I have had my little netbook since November. I take it with me whenever I travel and it is now on its third trip. Sometimes I even use it at home because it is so convenient.
Currently I am traveling where my resort has free WiFi. Free WiFi. Those two words are absolute music to my ears when I travel. However, I am discovering that the wonderful Free WiFi that is provided at the Portland Airport is not readily found in other airports. Who says Portland is behind the times!!! Not!!! In fact we are the trend setters!!!! Portland was again voted one of the top airports in the country. It has always ranked very high with Flight Attendants and Pilots.
