That's Life: Keeping Those Modern Marvels Humming
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I like to keep the manuals nearby for easy reference as no sooner than every mechanical contraption in my home is humming contentedly one develops hiccups or is disabled after swallowing a screw.
In the "olden days," people managed without many of the devices we now consider necessary.
When I was living with my parents and two sisters, we did not own a TV remote control; we took turns, more or less, changing channels.
You know, when we were watching television and someone got up from a chair to fetch a snack from the kitchen or use the bathroom or answer the phone, we who were still sitting would call out, "Switch the channel to 4 (or 2, etc.)." (Editor's Note: Wasn't that the main reason to have kids? So they could change the channel?)But now after 20 years of using a remote control, I am used to sitting back and changing channels with the press of a button.
In other words, I am spoiled. And when the remote control did not work recently, I was dismayed. Then I said to myself, "Don't panic. It could be worse, the TV could be broken."
When I tested the batteries in the remote control, I discovered they were worn out so I rummaged through a catch-all drawer in the kitchen until I unearthed the AA batteries I needed.
After replacing the dead batteries in the remote control, I pressed the power button, but the TV screen remained blank. Attempting to find the source of the problem, I fiddled with the TV and the remote control, including making sure the batteries were secure and that the TV was plugged into the electrical socket, to no avail.
Befuddled, I called a repairman. When he came to my home and I explained
what had happened, he said, "You must have kept the batteries out of the remote too long. The channel lineup is fouled up." He made the necessary adjustments in less than five minutes and then handed me a bill for $45.
Now that I know one needs to be a Speedy Gonzalez to successfully change the batteries in the remote control, in the future, I will put on my running shoes and fetch two AA batteries from the kitchen, before I check to see if the batteries in the remote control are worn out.
I have resisted using some modern conveniences, but my children have persuaded, encouraged and tricked me into keeping pace with advances in technology.
Time after time about 10 years ago, I rejected my son Christopher's offer of a gift computer. I was comfortable being computer illiterate, like my friends.
One morning, Christopher called from Virginia, where he was living then, and said he would drive up to Williamstown and spend the coming three-day weekend with me. "I wont get there until 3 or 3 Saturday morning," he said. "Don't wait up. I'll use my key to get in."
Heading for the kitchen after I woke Saturday morning, I noticed light slipping under the guest-room door. I knocked, and my son said, "Come in, Mom." I found him sitting, bleary-eyed at the desk, building a computer with the parts he had sneaked into my home while I was sleeping. After all the trouble he had gone to, I did not have the heart to refuse his gift.
Now I would be lost without a computer.
I have learned, however, that computers can be temperamental, serving us well one minute and then chewing up messages and disregarding our commands the next. To keep my newest Dell computer in a good mood, I give it TLC, periodically dusting the keyboard and gently cleaning the screen, shutting it down at night, installing systems that protect it from viruses, calling a computer doctor to treat it when it falls victim to other ailments. I even opened my home to its relatives — printer, microphone and camera to keep it company when I am elsewhere.
Now that I have finished this column, I will put the computer to bed, pulling down the shade on its screen and putting out the lights in the room so it can sleep.
"Have a good rest, Friend, I have lots of googling to do tomorrow."
