Modern Toys
The main reason that we do not have a modern microwave is that I don't think I could ever learn to operate it. Ours is close to thirty years old and is as simple to operate as a clothes dryer of the same technological stage, just turn the timer knob to the desired time and close the door.
Last night I reached overhead to press a button on the clock that sits on top of my bed. I inadvertently pressed the wrong button and put the clock in a mode that caused it to sound an alarm every ten minutes or so. We always place instruction books for new devices under them. But there was no chance that I could see, with the glasses that I had at bedside, to find the required instructions, or read the fine print. Oh! how I wish I could find an old fashioned wind up alarm clock. I ended up having to unplug the power cord, and remove the battery to stop it! This morning Margaret is pestering me to do something to restore the Christmas present clock she had given me to proper operation.
Christmas before last my son gave me a DVD player. What can anyone that still has and listens to 8-track tapes do with this? I managed to integrate the device into the entertainment rack in our den. The result has an ancient TV, cable box, VCR, and the DVD hooked up in series, requiring three remote controls. I have worked with it for hours and can set the several devices in at least a couple of ways to access several use modes. But look at the pictures below and you will understand the difficulties I am having.
Our telephone answering machine gave out after so many years. The only new one we could get was one operated by a computer chip. There are a dozen or more buttons and an instruction book of dozens of pages. We were lucky to learn how to turn it on and access any messages. We have not been able to set the time on it.
The list goes on and on. This Christmas Margaret's daughter Connie gave us a device to stop prerecorded telephone marketing messages. This device sends out a signal to make the originating computer think that our telephone has been disconnected. But it causes loud squeaks when we make or answer telephone calls. What a nuisance; so I have disconnected it and don't know where it is now.
Oh well, maybe we will get some learning advantage from it all.