We moved to a new home over the holidays. Who does that?! Like there isn’t enough going on between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, that we needed to throw in buying a house. A fully furnished house, I might add, that required us to move out the things we didn’t want, before we could move in our stuff. We had downsized twice before buying this house, so you’d think there wouldn’t be a lot to move, but we were surprised by just how much “stuff” you can acquire in a few years. For three years we were living in a pretty tiny space. Where did we put all of this stuff? Did we never get rid of anything!? It’s not like we were raised during the Great Depression you know!
At any rate, here we are, a little over a month after having closed on the first home we have actually owned in 23 years, and we are more, or less settled. There are a few details left to do, like painting, figuring out a place for those few boxes left in storage, replacing the weeds in the front planter with actual plants, and installing new carpet in the bedrooms. But, for now there is time for a glass of wine on the lanai, while watching the birds settle in to roost in the trees for the night, and enjoy the sunset.
It’s not the physical work, or the mental gymnastics of figuring out where to put things that is so hard about moving, though my aching back, and sore elbow may not agree. The real challenge comes when you go to set up the electronics!
When you move electronics you do not just pull plugs and wires willy nilly! No! You color code connections and cables so you can match them up later, or you’ll be asking, “Does this go into the input, or the output connection?” You won’t remember! You’ll be sitting in the living room, surrounded by coaxial cables, and HDMI cables. Multiples of each, because there is the DVD player, the TV, and the Playstation. Not only do you not know what they do, you do not know where they go! When my husband asks me those questions I reply, “I don’t know. I didn’t disconnect it! Didn’t you color code?”
I am not a technological dinosaur. I know how to maneuver my way around the internet on an ipad, a Mac, a PC, and an iPhone. I’ve rebooted, relinked, unlinked, wiped, fixed a catastrophic failure on a printer, and gotten different machines to talk to each other when they were definitely not on speaking terms. I can YouTube a problem with the best of them. But, there is always one that reminds me that we mortals are not in charge! It all started with Hal, in 2001 Space Odyssey, advanced to the “Cylons” in Battlestar Galactica, and now the Terminator is lurking right there in your living room disguised as the TV Remote Control!!!
Our new HD Comcast TV box required a new remote control, which needs to be paired with the TV in order to work. This one receives voice commands. In reality, it doesn’t like commands at all. Not voice, not touch, not nothing! I received a message that said, “Oops. There was a problem. Give us a second and then try again”. Now I know what I mean by “Give me a second”. Obviously not the same thing that they mean, because I waited and waited. I tried to give a voice command. Then I tried to just press the enter key. Both resulted in…oh that’s right…nothing!!! Nothing happened!! I even tried taking the batteries out of the remote and putting them back in, hoping maybe I reset everything. Nope! The same results happened when I turned the TV off, and then back on. I was still on the same screen, with the same directions, waiting for their “…one second” to be up!
So, how did I solve it? I haven’t yet. Don’t judge me! I have thought about throwing the remote across the room, but I doubt that would help, though it would feel rather satisfying. I could call one of my kids, but I would only get the eye roll you can’t see over the phone, but you know is happening. Not worth the judgment. I could call Comcast. That would be a last resort! Anybody ever try calling a cable company? Once you finally get through, you’ll find yourself talking about something you don’t really understand, to somebody in Asia, or India who thinks they are speaking English, but I don’t really think they are. They’re trying, but it’s not helping.
I’ll figure it out eventually, but today may not be the day. For now I’m ignoring it. Perhaps after a little time out, it will decide to play nice. How’s that for a high tech plan?
Love your stories, especially since we have been going thru the same thing. We are still weeding out stuff we don’t need. But I did call the kids to help on the electronics.
My son in law always rolls his eye at me. Lol
Hope you are getting settled in. I hear you on the weeding out process, and it is a process. Never sure we are ever really done! The dreaded eye roll! They can’t help themselves. LOL
Just close the curtains! I hear that helps everything unpleasant to go away. 🙂
Hahaha! You know my M.O.