Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Patience. Patience. Patience.

If you read the previous blog about the disaster regarding the chickens, smashing my fingers, smearing poop on my head and spilling stuff down my boots you would have noticed that, to top things off, Colt bit the remote control and the TV was stuck on the Blue Screen of Death flashing "No Signal" until Todd came home and fixed it in about two seconds. I have neither the aptitude nor patience for all things electronic. And one of the things I adore about my husband is his seemingly everlasting patience and intelligence regarding electronics. I, on the other hand, just shut the TV off when I can't figure out how to run it.

Yesterday, my day off, was Part Two in my war with the television. 

With Todd off to work and the baby down for a nap, I turned on the TV for some background noise/news while I finished cleaning the house.
I pressed "0-4" to tune KOMO news and nothing happened. I hit "Exit", nothing happened. I pressed "Menu" to see our DVR recordings, nothing happened. I pressed "Guide", nothing happened. I pressed every frickin' button on that controller and the only thing I could do was turn the TV off and on again. "Guide", nothing happened. "Guide" quickly again, nothing happened. I pressed the buttons even harder in rapid succession and nothing happened. So, I changed the batteries in the controller (smart one, huh?), nothing happened. I pressed every button on both of the other controllers; nothing happened. I then, in a stroke of genius, pressed the "Reset" button on the receiver, cursed DirecTV over and over, and waited 20 minutes for the stupid thing to reboot. After reboot I pressed "Guide" - NOTHING HAPPENED!!!

So, unable to work even the simplest electronics, I gave up and watched CNN on channel 204 - because that's what it was stuck on. All day. A news loop. Over and over. Until Todd got home.

When Todd arrived home I ran off the laundry list of things I single-handed destroyed that day, which included a lawn mower that wouldn't mow (I chewed up a rock early on in the day and it was never the same..), a busted mailbox (the bagger attachment on the lawn mower is slightly larger than I thought and caught it on a pass-by), and the TV that was stuck on channel 204. Not bad for only being home a 1/2 day?

Todd checks the TV first - because, who wouldn't? - and finds it in perfect working order. Channels change, goes on and off, can see the Guide, can watch DVRs. And then, he very patiently explained to me that had I waited just a moment after hitting each button instead of feverishly pressing them over and over, the TV would have done exactly what I wanted it to. When the TV didn't react instantaneously to my button-pushing I started pushing all kinds of other buttons, which veto-ed my previous selections, thus locking it up on channel 204. All day. If only I had the patience to wait a bit.

Remind me to tell you the story of disassembling the washing machine on the back deck. Geesh.

2 comments:

  1. We have the same lack of patience. Eric always gets SO annoyed at me for not just chilling out! Oh well!

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  2. We have one of those Logitech Harmony remotes. And the thing HATES me. I'll try and try, but I can tell HIM exactly what it was doing for me, and the he picks it up and it works fine. Makes me CRAZY!!! It's like when the car won't make the noise for the mechanic.

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