It is not unusual for me to go shopping and run errands on Friday so I can avoid Saturday morning traffic.  It’s prime time for people who don’t work from home to dispatch their household chores.

This past Friday, after my work was mostly done, I stopped at my chiropractor’s office to pick up supplements. I dropped off something at the dry cleaner (When am I going to learn how not to christen my tops with colorful or oily substances?), and I went to the post office.

In preparation for a planned outdoor picnic and concert on Saturday, I also stopped at Harvestime, my neighborhood grocery store, to buy a few ingredients for what I planned to make.

When I navigated my cart into the narrow lane between one of their check-out conveyors-and a rack for whim purchases, like KIND bars and celebrity magazines, I saw something that I had never seen there before.

On the customer side of the conveyor belt, all shiny and new, was a credit card machine with a chip reader.

The cashier, who probably sees me two or three time a week observed my reaction.

When did this happen? I asked.

Checking out at Harvestime generally meant waiting for the clerk to tell you the total, announcing that you brought your own bag, then handing the cashier your bankcard as you stated your preference between credit and debit.

The dark blond cashier, the one I usually see in the daytime, brought me into the loop.

Oh, we got the machines earlier this week.

I have railed against new technology before.

I remember when self-serve check-outs first came on the scene.  Supposedly, they were designed to save time.  Between problems scanning items or their inability to identify when items were deposited into waiting bags, requiring a manager to release a locked register, I saw no time-savings.

I was recently upset with my bank when they changed their platform for online banking.  They took a perfectly useful system, one that was designed for users who like full-screen snapshots of all their finances, and made everything work like a smart phone app.

Ah progress…

I don’t mean to sound like Andy Rooney (the Complainer In Chief from 60 Minutes), but sometimes, in the race to introduce something new, we can lose sight of what kind of improvements we’d really welcome in our lives.

And then I have to wonder …Are things becoming obsolete faster these days, or is it that embracing a new way of doing something gets harder the longer I’ve been attached to a previous routine.

And as I get older, I realize my attachments often get stronger.

I smiled at my cashier and the bagger and the floor manager, all of whom were interested in customer reactions to the store’s new technology.

They all seemed happy.  Maybe it was because they had less to do, or maybe they just had a natural enthusiasm for something NEW.

The bagger offered to help me take my purchases out to my car.

I declined, but I appreciated the offer.

Get over it, I told myself, Just go with the flow… I noticed I didn’t feel the same level of charge as I have from some past situations when change was forced on me.  I contemplated progress.

Okay, so the progress I’ve been thinking about has less to do with advances in technology and more to do with my increased willingness to accept change.

Inserting my credit card into the chip-reader at the check-out lane of my neighborhood grocery store – with a smile – is no small thing.