This post is taking part in Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday!

How many emails are sitting in your in-box? Ouch! The computer was supposed to make life easier for us. The wonderful world of email is suppose to speed up the communication process. But, does it really accomplish the intended end purpose? I’ve been an on-line type person for a long, long time. As a matter of fact, I remember the days of the BBS! (That’s short for Bulletin Board Service.) Those were wonderful days. One computer dialing into another computer. Only one person could connect at a time. Sometimes using a 1200 baud modem. Or, if you wanted a lightening fast connection speed, you spent a extra few bucks for the faster 2400 baud modem! In those days we were excited to make all the right connections while sending an email so we could get a response back in two days!

As the BBS systems started to fade, some smart operators connected in with other services who had a “window” to the Internet. Of course many times you had to find a way to tap into a school Internet system. That was the only way to do it. But, some techy type school people did find permission and access to such a “window.” Once the BBS found the “window” email could travel in just one day!

Ahhh, those were the days. Of course back then, we didn’t have to worry about email stacking up in the in-box. There just wasn’t that much email. Such is not the case today. So, when Randy asked what our in-box looks like in today’s Watercooler Wednesday chat, I had to ask myself — Which in-box? Which email address? Which email program?! A long time ago I figured out if I ever planned to survive the email world, I needed various addresses to keep things straight. That way different people have different email addresses depending on the level of family or friendship relationship I have with the individual. Then of course there’s my work related addresses to. So, what does my in-box look like….

Radio Station In-Box — 25
Gmail Account — 5
Yahoo Account — 5
MSN Account — 5
Home In-box — 80
Blackberry — 10

That makes a total of 130! I better get to work replying to some messages here. Maybe we can go back to the days of snail-mail. Or, better yet, maybe I should start subscribing to the advice I like to give everyone else — Touch any piece of paper, or in this case email, only once.

Oh wait, I forgot to look at my Spam-In-Box. There’s another 100 email messages sitting there needing some kind of attention. You will be happy to know that in my super-duper-top-secret-personal-private-email-address-in-box, there are no messages needing attention. If you have that address, you always get first priority responses.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

P.S. – I did find an email in my home in-box that does need attention. On a sad note, while I was typing this blog entry I received a phone call from my mother telling me that a former parishoner of ours from a church we were Pastors of in Ontario, Canada was killed in a motorcycle accident this morning. Very sad, he was only 54 years old. I have an email from his brother that I will definately respond to in a few minutes here.

John, you had many ups and downs and curves and corners in this journey we call life. May you rest in peace now that your journey has passed from this place we call earth, to the heavenly realm.