It’s been a strange summer for me, sleep-wise. I’ve been working at home, and without an external structure, my sleep cycle has evolved to a schedule usually seen only in teenagers and the severely jet-lagged. I sleep so late that I can’t bring myself to admit the hour to anyone — it shames me just to have the dog know what time I get up!
But I try to redeem myself by working at the computer long past midnight, which is when I find myself visiting online forums populated by friendly young men. Now, please don’t stop reading there, because it’s truly not what it sounds like!
Website development is what I’ve been working on, stuff like XHTML, CSS, Javascript and CMS configuration. This is not actually programming, my son informs me, but it’s close enough for an old broad like me. It’s a real stretch for this middle-aged brain. Fortunately, when I get stuck, I can find help just a click away at any hour of day or night. It turns out that there’s a sort of “hive mind” always buzzing at online message boards on these topics, and all the bees are young men, giving each other helpful suggestions like, “Dude, in the index.php, try adding style = ‘position:relative’ to one of the divs in the hornav module.”
Sure, there’s an occasional young woman, or an old guy (my age, that is) on the board. But from my observations, it looks like that I am the only over-50 female on the planet doing late-night code wrangling. And that’s a shame, because I think a lot of empty-nested women with insomnia would love it. Fiddling around “under the hood” of a website is as compelling as a knotty crossword puzzle or Sudoku, plus it gives you something to show for your effort. The dearth of females in this area is as mystifying to me as our under-representation among finger-style guitarists, National Geography Bee contestants, and late night talk show hosts. I think it’s time for a change.
So, here’s to new interests at any age and time of day, and without preconceived notions of gender suitability. Maybe, when I get done with my current projects, I’ll pick up the guitar. (I am pretty sure it’s too late for the Geography Bee). Or maybe I’ll create a late-night workshop, something like “Wacky Women Weaving Websites.” Because this is just way too much fun to leave to the boys.
Thanks for reading, and hang in there, folks…summer’s almost over! I’ll let you know when the new Our Town website is up — I hope you’ll visit it and say, “Wow! An old broad did this?”
Well, it is up…you’re on it! It’s not perfect yet, but it’s on its way. Thanks for visiting!