7 years, 3 months ago Bobbe White
New year! New You! New Possibilities! New Everything! How great is that?
Maybe in your world. Not to sound negative, but there were obvious signs on January 1-2, 2017 that made me suspicious.
We gave Jeff a smart TV (December 28th birthday). Fortunately, Korey was still in town to hook it up. The old set had two wires: wall plug and cable. The new set: thirty-seven! Korey meticulously configured the TV and cable box (we upgraded to 8,200 channel access, at less monthly cost. We’ll see…) It was like a NASA launch, “Houston? We have ignition!” The smart TV world was ours! Voice Activation too! Now, we have Siri (iPhones), Alexa (Echo) and somebody in our Television, probably another woman. I switched Siri to a British gent. His voice was quite lovely. We needed somebody calm in our tech-mix.
The TV worked beautifully, until Korey left town December 30th. It’s as if she took the power with her and we left us with a constant screen stating: “Oops! Looks like you’re having trouble! Please try again later. Meanwhile, check that:
1. Everything is plugged in properly,
2. All connections are righty-tighty, and
3. There’s connectivity in your area.
Check, check and check. Nothing. Jeff was getting impatient with numerous football games on tap. I wished we’d given him pajamas instead of a smarter-than-us-TV and called Comcast’s customer service. Apparently, the technician was an eleven year old in Bejing. Communication was difficult, but she troubleshot from afar. Nothing. She scheduled a service visit. “ToDaY?” I asked, desperately? A human would arrive between 8-10 a.m. On January 5th. WHAT? Nevermind we worked, I might need personal time off. Jeff could watch the bowl games on his iPad. And not happily.
Amazingly, we could still get Netflix on our smarter-than-us-TV! “2,300 movies!” Jeff kept marveling. That saved our New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day, we had connectivity. Woohoo! But we were locked on the Golf channel. Now, we love golf, but 24/7? Not that much. Can you say, “Technical nightmare?” On 1/2/17, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. mad and determined. I secretly unhooked the smarter-than-we-are-TV. Best Buy could have it back. I reconnected the old set (with two wires) and… “Ooops! Looks like you’re having troubles, Bubbles!” NOOOOOOOO! It wasn’t the TV, but the signal. I angrily unhooked the old set. Now, I had to reconnect the multiple wires; not exactly my forte. “Oops” was still playing on every channel. I shut it off. Later, I powered it up and by the grace of Siri, Alexa and the new girl, we had ignition! I voice activated NBC, CBS, ESPN. YESSSSSS! I didn’t know or care why it worked. Since then – knock on wood- we’ve watched whatever we’ve desired.
To add some additional color to New Year’s Eve “Oops” saga, let’s back up a bit to when I headed for the grocery, may we? En route, I get a text from Jeff, “Don’t get charcoal.” I didn’t understand. We were to grill ka-bobs. He then called: “I was cleaning the grill and the bottom fell out.”
On 1/03/17, I ‘m getting into the car, busily arranging things: purse, lunch, workout gear. First my bread flipped out of the bag onto the garage floor, so I invoked the 3-second rule. Then when I’m ready to drive, I realize my Yedi cup was tilted; water was pooling in my lap-and beyond. WOW does Yedi keep your water cold! Great: day one of the new year and I have cold wet pants.
So, how’s your New Year’s going?
Happy, healthy, stress-free New Year!
Bobbe
