Technology issues

Boy, how about that plane that landed in the Hudson today? What an amazing ending to such a scary event, praise God!! That crew should get extra special hero status, that's for sure.

One of the commenters to my previous post suggested that I set the timer on the TV when I have to go to sleep with it on (in order to keep from hearing the things that go bump in the night.) My answer to that was that I don't know how to do that, since remotes and I are not on friendly terms. I have a long history with remotes. I think I've told these stories before, but I'm too lazy to look back over my three years' worth of posts to check, so if you heard these before, just move on to your next blog!

Back in the 1989, when we got our first VCR with a remote, I had little use for the remote. It was much easier for me to adjust things right on the VCR itself. At about the same time our kids were beginning to need calculators for math class in school. As I would clean up around the house during the day I would become annoyed that someone was ALWAYS leaving his/her calculator lying out in the family room. Again and again I would put it into a drawer where we kept paper, pens, etc. One evening I heard Anthony saying loudly, "HERE'S the remote! Who keeps putting it into this drawer all the time???" Oh me. I had to admit that it was I, that I had not known it was a remote control, I thought it was a calculator!

Some years later Anthony gave me a boom box for my kitchen, complete with a remote control. About that time I also got my first cell phone. Again I avoided using the remote control. But one morning I decided to try it. I picked up the remote and aimed it at the boom box, and what do you know, the radio came on! I was so pleased with myself. Behind me Dick was sitting at the kitchen table. He said, "You didn't turn it on." I said, "Yes, I did! I used the remote!" He said, "No you didn't. I have the remote and I turned it on. You were holding your cell phone!" Can you believe it?? There I stood, pointing my cell phone at that boom box, thinking I had turned it on.

I've come a long way since then in my relationship with technology, and I regularly use remote controls, but I must admit I've never figured out the TV timer. That's Dick's job around here!