The year was 2005. Don and I had moved to Idaho two years before. I decided to join the local chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America), meetings of which were held in Spokane.
It was there, for the first time, that I saw something that was to become something of an obsession: An AlphaSmart Neo.
It was more intense than an obsession. I coveted this little writing gizmo, but it simply wasn't within our budget to buy one new.
One day a woman in the writer's group wanted to upgrade to the newer version, and she offered to sell me her old unit for an extremely low price. I leaped at the opportunity and never looked back. A few years later, I saw an identical model in a thrift store and snapped it up, so now I have two.
Essentially an AlphaSmart Neo is a portable keyboard capable of storing 200 pages' worth of writing. It runs on AA batteries that seem to last forever (I change mine about every five years). Everything typed into the AlphaSmart is automatically saved, and the text isn't lost when changing the batteries. It has eight different files, so I can work on eight different documents at the same time.
And these things are tough. Older Daughter once dropped mine on concrete and it was fine. I believe these machines (there are several versions) were originally developed to teach schoolkids keyboard skills, so they had to be tough.
Today I needed to take our car in for new (used) tires at a local place. I had about an hour to kill, so I brought my AlphaSmart with me and got my daily half-chapter of my latest book written. When I got home, I ran the cord from the AlphaSmart to my laptop and downloaded it all.
In about a week, I'm taking a fast trip down to see my parents. Guess what I'll be packing in my suitcase so I can do some concentrated writing in the airports?
For times I need to just write and not be distracted by emails or the internet, the AlphaSmart can't be beat. Since it turns on and off instantly, I don't have to worry about powering it up or down. It even has a two-button "on" option so it doesn't accidentally get jostled on when carried in, say, a backpack.
Sadly, the manufacturer went out of business in 2013, doubtless unable to compete with newer whiz-bang electronics. However units can still be found online. Honestly, if Amazon had any more than a single unit in stock, this would be a product review. (You can find units available on eBay.)
So yeah, even though I've had my AlphaSmart for 20 years, my love affair with this remarkable little tool hasn't faded. You might call this blog post an Ode to the AlphaSmart.
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