Monday, March 13, 2006

Why does nothing work right?

So who watched Sopranos? The entire episode I kept telling myself (and AB), "Tony is going to die" or "something is going to happen to him!" So my theories on what was going to happen were off, I thought the Florida guy was going to shoot him. Anyways it was a great show! I have Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy recorded on the computer and will write them to DVD to watch them. Or watch in hi def on my 20" widescreen... naw... big TV.

So attempts at hooking up the home network obviously failed for the most part this weekend. The wireless router worked fine, but damn Tivo was incompatable. I couldn't justify the $100 for the wireless router for those rare occasions when I need to access my company's internal site. Or to access the older than dirt computer in the guest room. (See, I am trying to be frugal.) Plus the $49 for a Tivo wireless adaptor. So we hauled it back to Costco for a refund.

So now we have one very long phone cord still plugged in for Tivo across the Master bedroom AND a very long coax cable going around the corner into the library to the computer so that I can record shows on the computer. Both are tripping hazards. (Can I convince you I don't work for the government now? Safety at all costs extends to home.) *sigh* So the best way we see to remedy this situation is to finally hire someone to finish the built in shelf area we started on, string the coax through the wall to the library and put a cable plate on the wall. Connect up the computer and the S-video to the TV. We have a TV tuner and DVR on the computer that does not require a monthly fee. So this means that once we accomplish this, we need to dump Tivo.

We could dump Tivo now and just write everything to DVD-RW and play in the DVD player. Naw, not convenient enough. So until then, we will keep it.

What was exceptionally frustrating to me this weekend was figuring all this out. I have always been way up on my tech-savy-ness. Or at least I like to think of myself as being way up on it. What has happened to me these past couple years? Why has my technical knowledge slipped so much? I got to the point where I was so frustrated and annoyed trying to figure all this out. Couple that with AB having a completely different approach to every single thing. What do people who don't regard themselves as being technically savy do?

So the other major frustration this weekend was in the cellular shade I bought for my library. 71" wide, special ordered through Lowes. The biggest problem here is that it must be side-mounted in my window since I have a large arched window. "No problem, " the woman at Lowes told me a few weeks ago and sold me a set of side mounting brackets. Of course the side mounting brackets don't fit the special order blind, I call to order the ones that go with and am informed that I cannot side mount a blind longer than 60". She tells me it will sag and not function properly and starts to explain why their engineers recommend this. I stop her, I get it.

What can I do?

Well one of two things. Either mount a piece of wood in the window frame or return it for refund. Gurr. I want neither thank you. I want it to work. Three phone calls to Lowes later. Twice on the phone with Ditzy McBrainchild who was my "representative" who just could not figure out why the hardware she sold me would not work... finally I got rude and told her that had she placed the order correctly and indicated on the order that it was to be side mounted she would have automatically been told it wouldn't work. She swears to me that she did indicate "side mounted". I respond that "oh it must just be the special order company who is lying to me then..."

4 phonecalls later and I am waiting for a response as to how they are going to "fix this". AB says screw it, give it up, quit being stubborn. He will just get a piece of wood, we can paint it, mount it somehow and hang the damn blind. But damn it, I don't want that! It will look fugly and I am damn sick of everything in my house being a kludge. Just for once I want something that looks nice and is made the way it should be and not just muscled and super glued to work.

Ok, vent over.

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