I've been working with computers for decades. You'd think that I would have a better relationship with pieces of technology than I do. Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode where machines were taking over, bent on destroying mankind? I think there may be some truth to that story.
The other day we had some power outages. It got unseasonably warm and everyone turned on the AC at one time. That and a transformer blew out. It took a while for the electricity to come back on and stay on. It kept going out for a few moments then coming back on just long enough to go around and reset all the clocks before going out again. We thought it was on for good by the time we went to bed but it must have gone out again during the night. I went down to the kitchen to get some breakfast to find that the coffee hadn't started and the pot was flashing "12:00". I figured that I would just start it up and start setting clocks again. No such luck. With this model of coffeepot the time has to be set to get it to work at all. I had never set the time on the coffeepot. Doris usually gets this job. It turns out that there is a trick to it. One that I couldn't figure out, especially since I hadn't gotten my morning shot of caffeine yet. I messed around for a few minutes, pushing buttons and trying to coax it to give me some much needed coffee. I finally gave up and set the kettle on to boil so I could make some instant coffee.
I then turned to the microwave to heat up my bowl of oatmeal. It must have been designed by the coffeepot maker. I couldn't get it to go until after I had set the time. I'm already frustrated and cranky with being defeated by the coffeepot. I'm pushing buttons on the front of the microwave trying to set the time, not getting very far. It starts beeping at me and "CHILD" is displayed on the LED panel.
It's bad enough that the stupid technology won't work when I want it too. It didn't have to insult me, too.
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