Tiz Tech Talk

Top 'o the morning, friends and family,
I am at home this time, sitting on the couch under a blanket and I've just finished my coffee which I make in a nifty little contraption called a caffetiere. It is non-electric and I just pour hot water into it and let the coffee steep and then I push a plunger/filter thing down. That brings me to appliances. .. If you wake up this morning and flip a switch, turn a knob, or push a button and you get light, heat, air conditioning, TV, clean clothes, dry clothes, and hot water, and can answer a telephone call and make one, you are way ahead of me. In our apt, I turn the hot water on and off all day as needed…but of course I’ve never remembered to turn it on when I need it like when I’m washing my face at bedtime. So I splash ice cold water on my face because I’m too lazy to go flip the “hot water” switch. Instead of being ready for bed, I am then wide awake. There’s more. We have a combination washer and dryer. In order to work it, I have to program it and there are 13 choices. Half the time I don’t know if the clothes are washing and/or drying, but at the end of the day I take out everything I put in and hope for the best. Cable TV? Don’t even ask. Bob and I are eagerly awaiting our children’s arrival in Dec. to solve that one for us. We have 3 remotes and even –I’m told—have a DVR. (Note to PM: you said I was the only person you knew who didn’t have a DVR; well, now I have one, but I don’t have the remotest --no pun intended—idea of how to use it!) If I turn it on and a channel actually appears, I won’t dare change it. I have watched some majorly boring political debates for just that reason. (I hate to ask, but do I sound like my 98- year- old mother on that one??) We do have a large heated metal towel rack in the bathroom which is awesome. The telephone? Again, I’m waiting for the kids on the cellphone. The calls are so rare that when I do get one I am shocked, don’t know what it is, and usually don’t get it answered on time. I have no idea how to get my messages on either my Vonage phone or my cellphone, so if you leave me one, beware. Yesterday Bob and I accomplished the last technological hurdle: we turned on the dishwasher! We think it worked. Again, I just took out the dishes and hoped for the best. They looked reasonably clean… So, as you can see, we are adjusting well to life in a foreign country. While I wouldn’t say we have conquered the appliances here, we are seeking peace with them