Techo Wiz Part Deux

Back in 1981, I moved into an apartment with my friend, Kathleen. Once we were settled, I watched in awe as she unearthed a hammer and nails and set about hanging pictures. Hammer? Nails? I’d never even possessed such objects, let alone tried to use them! Wasn’t that a man’s job?? But, no! There she was, proving me wrong!

I learned an important lesson that day. That maybe I could do stuff that I’d originally thought should be left up to men.

Which is why I’m proud of the following.

Since my cable boxes were circa 1990, Adelphia sent me a letter saying I had to replace them by May 9...or else run the risk of no cable. Ack! NO CABLE?!? How would I survive? Despite a sense of trepidation—what if I couldn’t get them hooked back up?—I crawled around through cobwebs, moved heavy furniture, squeezed my eyes shut and yanked all the cords and cables. Don’t get me wrong; I installed both in the first place, but sometimes success isn’t repeatable.

Anyway, I lugged them to the office, exchanged them for new ones that didn’t look much different, and got them all reinstalled. Upon instruction, I then called an 800 service number so they could walk me through programming the remotes. Long story short, I’ve got cable on both TV’s but the remote for one doesn’t work. Service rep said I’ll have to take it back in. Sigh. (If you’re wondering why I didn’t have them come out—sure, right. “And we can be there sometime between 9 and never.” No thanks.)

So the upshot of the new boxes and remotes is that I now have “On Demand.” Big deal. Didn’t I have IN Demand before? What the hell’s the difference?

OH! And another techno note...what’s up with the post office? I seem to have single-handedly delayed the announcement of the Daphne Du Maurier Contest finals. Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t. They haven’t received the hard copy of my scores yet and apparently, the finalists were supposed to be announced today. I told my assistant to take them to the post office...but, what if she didn’t? What if she threw them in the mailbox? What if they’re stuck in USPS ozone somewhere? Or, worse...being subjected to bomb sniffing dogs on a remote island?? Ack. It wouldn’t be so bad if I’d scored everyone low, but I gave two high scores and I’m guessing either one or both is involved in what the coordinator says is such a close race that they need the hard copies before announcing.

So, somewhere out there...a bunch of authors are chewing nails....and it’s all my fault! Sorry, ladies!