Tag: modern technology

A Bulb Tale

More first world blues!

I barked out a laugh.

My wife absently asked, “What’s so funny?”

We were in the home office, each quietly doing computer things. Sitting back, I turned my chair to face her. “You know how that garage door light bulb went out?”

The background: there’s a light that goes on when you press the button to raise or lower the garage door. It was no longer going on.

She nodded, waiting for me to drop the other shoe.

“Well, when you were out the other day, I replaced the bulb. That didn’t fix it, though.”

“Oh,” my wife said.

“Anyway.” I gestured at the computer. “I figure, must be something else. So I’m researching online. One of the things I came across was that I should use a light bulb specifically made for garage door lifts.”

My wife frowned. “What?”

I laughed. “Exactly. We’ve lived here twenty years. I think I replaced the bulb one before. I replaced our Half Moon Bay garage door light one time. I’ve never bought a special bulb for it.”

“Why would the garage door need a special bulb?” my wife asked.

“It’s supposed to be ‘more rugged’.”

She and I both laughed. “I think that’s crap,” she said.

“I agree,” I replied.

We returned attention to our computers.

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Sunday’s Wandering Thoughts

I did my ‘first of the month’ chores the other day. These include pouring things down into the bathtub to keep the sewer lines cleared, and running cleaners through the washing machine, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. We hunt for organic, safe things to do this with. I do them every month on the first day to keep it all working well.

That’s the dream, anyway.

All transpired as planned with everything except the washing machine. It stopped, showing an error message.

My wife pointed it out to me by asking, “What’s this mean?”

“What?”

“The washing machine isn’t doing anything. It shows ‘rL’ where it usually shows the time.”

I looked. Not because I didn’t believe her. It’s just habit: see for myself. Helps me shift into ‘maybe I can fix it’ mode.

She was right about what it said. The time is always in green. These letters were in red.

“That’s not good,” I wisely noted.

We pulled out the manual and found the error message. It’s specifically for the cleaning cycle and means, ‘something is in the washer’. Nothing is supposed to be in the washer during this process. The only thing in it is the tablet purchased for the purpose.

My wife and I talked about it. “This is what we used before,” we agreed. “It was never upset before.”

Shrugging, I took the standard modern technology route: turn it off, turn it back on.

And it worked.

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Today’s Wandering Thought

He thinks about the things he uses, enjoys, and curses every day. Computers and cars, sandwiches and plastic, phones and music. So different from 200 years ago. He tries to place himself there, struggling to see himself as a person in those times, without these things, and pretty miserably fails. Would he have been a teacher or shopkeeper, a farmer or soldier? Depression rolls over and sighs.

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Low Priority

Snark time.

We receive our credit card statement by old-fashioned (in this era – it was modern in another time, I swear) snail mail. A personal check is written to cover our charges, and then it’s mailed back, with a stamp. Each month, the credit card company then sends me an email, verifying that the payment has been received and the bill is paid. They also tell me, “Next time, quickly and easily pay your bill using any checking, money market, or savings account – at home or on the go – ”

Yes, because one BIG priority in my life is to PAY MY CREDIT CARD BILL MORE QUICKLY. Because that benefits me…how?

I think we know who benefits from paying my bill by an e-process or app more quickly, and it ain’t me and my wife.

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