Dick Wolfsie: Tuesdays with Auri

<p>It began with a simple phone call to my friend Auri, a computer geek I asked to help me with my successful website, which right now is attracting up to three visitors a month. To have a strong online presence, you have to spend several hours a day using social media, like Facebooking, tweeting, and updating your blog. This means cutting yourself off from the outside world. But that’s the price you pay for being social.</p><p>Auri and I decided we would meet in a few days for coffee. I got out my trusty mini legal pad and wrote down the time and date. Then I put a sticky note on my bathroom mirror. At my age, I know I will see it there several times the night before, reminding me of that early-morning obligation. This system seldom fails, although one day I accidentally grabbed a list from the previous day and started repeating everything on it. I’m glad I have an honest barber.</p><p>Auri and I agreed to get together on the following Tuesday, at 9 a.m., at Starbucks. Auri entered our engagement on his Google calendar, which I soon discovered automatically synched to my AOL calendar, telling me the time and location of the appointment. I don’t like it when other people tell me where to go — but that was also happening way before computers.</p><p>A minute after our call, a “meeting alert” magically appeared on my computer screen. The message came with a selection of colors for this entry to distinguish it from other appointments on my calendar, except I didn’t have any. I had no idea what color a conversation at Starbucks should be. Brown seemed appropriate for java, but something more festive felt right. Mary Ellen suggested taupe or mauve; I told her the color should reflect the importance of our get-together, not match our bedspread. I went with red.</p><p>The following morning, I got an “Invitation Update” in my email, as well as on my cell phone. It was a request by Auri to change our breakfast from 9 a.m. to 8:30. I agreed to the new time, telling him in a comment box that I was changing the color of our meeting from red to green. Although I’m sure this didn’t matter to Auri, the Department of Homeland Security was probably relieved.</p><p>Included with the update was a link to MapQuest, informing me how long it would take to get there from my house, which was either 3 minutes away, 4 minutes away, 7 minutes away or 8 minutes away, depending on which nearby Starbucks I was going to.</p><p>On Tuesday morning, I got another cell phone alert (an annoying ding) that my breakfast meeting was in half an hour. Then at 8:15, I was dinged again, warning that I only had 15 minutes to make it on time. I rushed out the door, afraid that if I were late, news of my tardiness would go viral.</p><p>I reached Starbucks at 8:25. Auri hadn’t arrived yet. I bought a coffee and waited. And waited. I called his cell phone just before 9 a.m. He answered right away. “Auri, where are you? I’m at Starbucks on 82nd,” I said.</p><p>He responded, “Oh my gosh, was that today?”</p>