My home is rather highly technologized, by my standards at least. And as a result, much has been made easier or more fun. In the words of a young Tom Clancy: “Wowie! Zowie!” Yes, it creates a lot of dependency and habit, but it’s sooo nice.
Sunday my Comcast modem/router (aka “Gateway”}, the heart of it all, seemed to have turned up its toes and died, after gasping for a day or two while I administered frantic but ineffective CPR to every device I could think of. With it died its dependents …
- Remotely controlled thermostat
- The front porch light and lights on the front of the garage (my nighttime “security”)
- The light on the back deck (more security, plus being able to see Charlie in the yard)
- The video doorbell (security and convenience)
- The Xbox and tv (entertainment and connection with the outside world) (Remember when you actually had to get up and walk over to the tv to change the channel?)
- My computer (entertainment, communication)
- My Google mesh system (provides wi-fi throughout the house)
- My Google mini speakers (4 or 5 around the house that obey simple verbal commands and can place any necessary calls for help)
- My Google Nest Hub Max (speaker/display screen combo)
- The smoke alarms (they have battery backups but who knows how well they’ll work on batteries. Worse, without wi-fi, I have no way to silence them if they go off by mistake or warn me they are about to because of smoke from the kitchen). If you’ve ever had to climb a ladder three times in the middle of the night to pull three different screaming alarms off the ceiling, only to discover it was the CO detector going off, you’d really appreciate this feature. Besides, I don’t climb ladders anymore.)
All of the indoor lights still worked, although I wasn’t sure the three living room lamps controlled by wi-fi would come back on unless I first removed their wi-fi smartplug thingys. And fortunately the thermostat could still be adjusted manually — when I could get out of bed or off the couch and go spend five minutes figuring it out. At least everything in the kitchen was working. (Life support!)
Thank god my smartwatch and phone still worked. I could call for help. Which I did. My son came over and I told him everything I’d checked and the things I’d done — mostly unplugging and replugging several devices, and accomplishing nothing, which I suppose was diagnostic of something. He did some checking around of his own, sat cogitating for awhile as I sat on my hands trying desperately to not interrupt his thought process, fiddled with this and that, and somehow breathed life back into the system. I won’t bore you with my attempt to explain what he attempted to explain to me, but long story short, everything was working when he left.
Naturally, less than an hour later, everything died again and rather than call him back, I vowed to call Comcast the next morning.
I didn’t sleep well that night, thinking about all the things that weren’t working and, lying there alone in the dark, wondering if situations like this are why so many seniors go to retirement homes instead of staying in their own homes.
The next morning, after an interminable “conversation” with Comcast’s computer, where its questions and multi-choice menus failed utterly to address my problem, questions, and repeated requests for “agent” or “representative.” I finally managed to get a service call scheduled … for next Saturday. Five long days. And with a “convenient” arrival window of 7 am to 10 pm. (Yes, you read that right.)
When my son, an IT professional, heard that I was dead in the water again and couldn’t get service until Saturday, he took time out of his busy day and got over here around noon. Together we finally concluded that, yes, the Comcast Gateway was dead. Rather than have me wait an eternity for a service tech to come out Saturday, he pulled out the dead Gateway, took it to the Comcast store, and exchanged it for a new one. Two hours later everything was up and running again. And has been ever since.
I was so grateful and relieved I was almost in tears. I can’t imagine the plight of someone like me without a tech-literate relative nearby to help. This house has never seemed so quiet, so utterly bleak, so dead, as it was without all my wifi gadgets working as intended. Wonderful conveniences, until they aren’t.
Of course, I had to repeat the computer nonsense to reach a live person at Comcast to tell them to cancel the Saturday service call. But at least everything is back to normal. For now.
-30-
I am so no savvy in the way of the tech world that I have the minimum as far as my household and even then have to call on my daughters or the pros for support as needed. but, I can write a nice haiku. we all have our skills )
You are far more savvy than just a nice haiku. You manage to bring joy, light, wonder into the lives of your readers … Every. Single. Day. And not only do you post something uplifting every day, you then reply to every one of your dozens of comments. I don’t know how you do it. Who needs tech when you can do all that? ❣️
hopefully, you got my comment and if you did or did not, it will support what I answered )
Yep, I got it!
When Chic was still here and fully functioning, nothing like your setup existed, Colorado. Coz if it had, he would’ve put one in place.
And now he’s gone I have no-one. I can be grateful for it, in a way: there’s nothing to go tits up. :\
But I should so like to have something like your “My Google mini speakers (4 or 5 around the house that obey simple verbal commands and can place any necessary calls for help)” !!!
Do you have any wi-fi access? Your tv, maybe? There might be wi-fi available in your building. Those speakers are wonderful. For my eye drops, I say “Google, timer, one minute.” And it runs a one minute timer while I keep my eyes closed, then sounds a tone when time’s up. “Hey Google, what’s today’s forecast for Thornton?” Hey Google, what’s the time, the temperature?” “Hey Google, call Rich.” “Hey Google, set a reminder for 10 am tomorrow … ” “Remind me to … ” I can be heard from any place in the house. I still reflexively sometimes say “thank you” when it answers a question, and it says “you’re welcome.”
Might there be a computer store, an electronics store, someplace in your city that sells Google mini speakers, that has a tech who could set it all up for you? Despite the speakers, I almost always keep my phone at hand. But the speakers are a wonderful aid for all kinds of little things.
Well, I have wi-fi, which connects me to the Internet.
But I’ve wasted so much time and money in seeking out an IT bloke: ain’t nevah found one worth a pinch of shit. And you’re Apple. I’m Android. (But I still love you ! [grin])
My computer is Apple only because I inherited one some years ago. But phone and watch are Android because that’s what my son and his family use. Seemed the sensible thing to do. As for tech support, there are services like Best Buy’s Geek Squad, but I don’t know how they work. It sounds like you’ve already explored options like that.
The downside to all this tech stuff is understanding it well enough to use it, and having someone knowledgable enough (and willing) to keep it running and explain to you how to use it. Not to mention, speaking only for myself, when you get to be a certain age, you start forgetting things you once knew. Not to mention the technology keeps changing and advancing. About the time you feel like you’ve mastered something, everyone has already moved on to the next great thing.
I have Amazon echo-dots that do the same things as your Google system. Same uses as yours. Also, it’s convenient for trivia. My sons and I watch DVR – recorded Jeopard regularly and will often pause the show to investigate a topic or celebrity. Echo has proved competent in knowing a lot about celebrities and history in general.
I agree of course with your feelings about electronics. Not only is my house full of computer chips but all my savings are in the electronic cloud. All of it, in my nightmares, is vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse from Russia or China (or North Korea, potentially.) Cars too.
Yes, there are so many little incidental things those speakers are good for. Just a passing thought like wondering how old so-and-so is or who wrote such-and-such. I’m not real sure about the cloud and how it works. I have my photos there now (seems they were going there without my doing anything, and I didn’t know it until my son pointed it out), but do all my banking with local banks, via computer. It was a few years before I felt confident enough to do that instead of driving to the bank.
Oh, and I didn’t even mention my biggest headache — the tv! Without realizing it or understanding what it meant, I inadvertently bought a “smart” tv last year. I still struggle with the interface, understanding it, trying to find what I want, learning what I can and can’t do. I’ve been close to tears of frustration at times and have considered ditching it to get a regular tv again. Of course, by now they’ve changed too and I’d probably be struggling with yet another unfamiliar system.
I do not have that pertickler problem, coz I don’t have a TV ! 🙂
Don’t miss it one iota; and I can binge on “The Blacklist” to my heart’s content via Netflix on my laptop. Ah, how I LERVE James Spader …
I don’t watch The Blacklist regularly but I do like Spader. I do also love my big screen tv and have for many years. Not to mention I couldn’t play my favorite video game without it.
Should I ask ??
Red Dead Online
As they say about technology, when it works it’s wonderful but when it doesn’t our lives fall apart. You’re lucky you have a son nearby. I pay $200 a year for Geek Squad, and it’s worth it. They don’t always fix it the first time, but eventually I’ll get it fixed, and it’s better than me screaming at the computer (or phone). Funny thing is that, when I use the Geek Squad, every other person there is older (60 or so and up). I’ve always wondered how younger people get their screens fixed. I guess they just grew up with technology and understand it.
Well, so far so good for them. Let’s see if they still understand it all 40 or 50 years from now. I understood it too, once upon a time. But technology advanced far faster than I could keep up — especially after I retired and was no longer rubbing elbows with younger people at my workplace. Or having to accomplish a myriad of tech-based tasks at that office every day. Use it or lose it, absolutely.
I didn’t realize you could pay a fee to keep Geek Squad on call all year. I suppose if my son didn’t live just a mile away, I’d have tracked down something like that. I try so hard not to ask him for “tech support.” He has his own regular job, and often a side gig or two besides. I have to be really desperate to bother him with it.