I felt powerless this weekend, as electronic hassles dominated my time. The wine cooler wasn’t cooling, the garage door wasn’t opening, the internet was out, and the TV went dark. I could blame it all on sun-spots or aliens jamming the circuits, but some of it was my fault. All of the cable problems were the result of a plug in the closet that I inadvertently knocked out of its socket. As I was on the phone to Comcast it had suddenly occurred to me that I was rooting around in the closet where some of the equipment is housed. At least I didn’t pay for a repairman to come out to plug it in for me.

Not having the TV on in our bedroom caused my wife to lose a night’s sleep. She does not like any seepage of light into our room or any foreign sounds, but can somehow drift-off into dreamland with the TV on. I can’t tell you the number of times she forgets to set the timer, and I have to turn it off in the middle of the night. At least, I can still see the pets on the floor, so I don’t trip over them and disturb their sleep. We’ve installed plantation shutters on all the windows in the house, and if the TV is not on our bedroom is pitch black. Since she’s still active in the TV business, the late night commercials are appropriately money in her pockets, peace of mind, and music to her ears. 

We also solved the wine cooler problem, by redistributing some our recent purchases. It was either that or rebooting the cooling equipment that caused it to function properly again. Unplugging and restarting has become my quick fix for all things electronic.  If it doesn’t work- turn it off and on until it does! This did not work for the garage door opener, and a service visit was necessary. You hope that it isn’t something embarrassingly simple that just wasted a $100 bill, but you also hope that it’s a simple enough repair to keep it under $250. If it’s any more than $250, it may be time for a new one. In this case, it was a circuit board that will need to be ordered for a grand total of exactly $250 once they complete installation. In the meantime, we’ll be carrying a key.

Although our schnauzer Tally is not electronic, I just got a call from the “Pet.Vet.Debt” doctor. Fortunately, the biopsy sample we sent in revealed that she doesn’t have cancerous cells in her right eye. She also does not need a new circuit board. I do, however, have to pick up some pricey cortisone drops tomorrow and set-up some follow-up appointments. Tinker, her older sister, has run out of medication, and I will need to get restocked before we leave for St. Louis on Saturday morning. Couple all this with pet sitting expenses for the next 8 days and we’ll need a lottery win.

Steely Dan (minus Walter Becker), The Doobie Brothers (minus the doobie), and James Taylor (minus Bonnie Raitt) will hopefully keep us distracted from electronic hassles for the next two nights. All shows are at the Moda Center here in Portland. We’ll see how our seats turn out! (See Post #121). I just hope that their set-up crews have better luck with the electronics than we have here at home. We have our cell phones if we need a flashlight, and will take our keys so we can get back in through the garage after the show.