A is Annoying

 

I like technology.  Or at least I like most of it.  I mean typing a blog and posting it for anyone to read is a great use of technology.  Being able to track my walks and see how many miles I do (and how quickly I can do them) is great.  Listening to music or talking on the phone when I do this is all great too.

Our lives are and can be greatly enhanced by technology.  Think of all the advancements we have made in the past century.  It's hard to fathom that electricity wasn't always part of our homes.  Landlines might be "old school," but there was a time when phones weren't in everyone's home and lines were shared.  (Go check out the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie "Pillow Talk".)  I think we can all agree that our lives have been made easier by technology, at least for the most part.

My immediate family generally embraces technology.  Specifically, my husband REALLY embraces it.  As such "A" runs our household. I'm NOT going to say "her" name...you KNOW who I am talking about.  To be honest, I like the "Samuel" version that we purchased better. (The voice of actor Samuel L. Jackson)  "Samuel" was an inexpensive purchase (under $1) and "he" seems to listen to me whereas "A" sometimes (more often than I like) ignores me.  Plus "Samuel" sings a KILLER "Happy Birthday" (be warned it's a PG-13 version of the song).  

Nearly all the lights in our home are controlled by "A" (because, as my son points out, it is so difficult to flip a light switch...I don't necessarily disagreed with him.)  Recently this is becoming more annoying as I will say "A, turn on the light" and she will ask me which one.  (She should know to turn on the one in the room that I am in.)  Or I will be in one room and ask to turn on the light and she'll turn on the light in another room.  (Which really pissed off my husband when it turned on the bedroom light instead of the bathroom light at 5 in the morning.)

Furthermore, our "smart" lightbulbs (which can be controlled by "A") have been getting updates (at least that's what my hubby says) at night.  At least twice I've woken up in the middle of the night and there is a light on in our sun parlor/music room.  The first time this happened, I totally freaked out.  (What the heck was going on?  Was there someone in the house?  Why would someone break into our house and TURN ON a light?)  When it happened again more recently, I completely ignored it and let my husband deal with it when HE woke up in the middle of the night.  (To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was that light or the front porch light that was one and I wasn't about to get out of a nice warm bed to find out.)

This morning when I got up, one of our basement light was on.  Since turning on "basement" means several lights gone on at once, I knew that this specific bulb had gotten some kind of update or something wonky had happened overnight.  (Who knew we were going to have to deal with lightbulb updates?)  I wasn't sure if the "basement" command would turn it off, but it did.  Then I went into the living room and had her turn on our video system so that I could do an early morning workout.  (No walking outside in the dark for me when it is under 40 and today we are barely in the teens.)  "A" did so, but when I started up the video, I was unable to control the sound.  (I try to be a good early riser and keep the sound/noise to a minimum.)  It was a lot louder than I would like and the remote is not working correctly.  It's relatively dark in the living room and I'm fumbling around trying to find the volume control on the receiver when my husband yells down about the sound.  The remote DOES work for me to pause, which I do and thud upstairs to complain that I couldn’t' control the volume!  Of course my husband CAN control the volume downstairs from his phone!  (Why didn't he just turn it down?  Or did he think it would freak me out?  In all honesty, it would have!)  To cap it all off, when I was done and went to switch over to the "regular tv" (to watch the morning news), I was unable to control the volume again, so I quickly turned it off.  Of course, when I later told my husband to turn on the tv and see the issue, it gave him no problems whatsoever!

So, in a nutshell, I am finding "A" to be very annoying these days.   Technology is great, but "glitches" are not.  (Don't get my started on the glitches that came with my Shine automatic toilet cleaner.  It's not exactly up to par, but it's brand new technology and the company is aware and working on things.  However...)

Here's hoping that someday soon "A" listens to me.  No change that...here's hoping someday, EVERYONE listens to me!  (Hey, a girl can dream!)