Have You Tried Turning It Off and On?

Unlike our kids and grandkids, the Sisterhood can occasionally be overwhelmed by today’s technology. After all, we grew up with land line phones, black and white televisions and cameras that required film and a few days processing before the eagerly awaited photos were ready for pickup. While we do consider ourselves reasonably “technologically adept,” we occasionally (our kids might use the word often…) need just a teensy bit of help figuring things out. And, as Middle Sis’ adventures below illustrate, we sometimes have difficulty discerning exactly when we need that help.

If I Had A Hammer

Recently my husband started having trouble with his phone – emails going missing, texts not sending, and routinely running out of power. After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out a fix, he phoned our internet provider helpline. After waiting patiently, he was able to talk to an IT person and explain the problem. That is when he heard the words that made both of us sigh and put palm to forehead. The IT person asked the question forever now burned into our memory: “Have you tried turning if off and on?” The proverbial KISS principle in action. And to add insult to injury, this proved to be the solution to the problem. The phone was once again working until…. messages started to appear about the SIM card not working.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not really clear on what a SIM card does, but my husband decided to take a page out of the “turn it off and turn it on” playbook, and so he took out the SIM card and put it back in. This unfortunately didn’t fix the problem. He thought the solution might be a new SIM card, but when he tried to take the card out a second time it would not budge. So, it was back to IT support for help.

I was not there when the first go at taking out the SIM card happened, and so, I’m sure it was a tossup who was more surprised – me or the IT person, to hear that hubby used a hammer and nail to get the SIM card out the first time. To her credit, the IT person calmly carried on and had him try several ways (none involving a hammer or nail) to get the SIM card out, but to no avail. It seems it was time for a new phone.

Fast forward a few days when the new phone arrives and it is time to activate it and transfer all the info from the old phone to the new one. Now, in these situations, I tend to be the proverbial ‘fraidy cat and worry if you press the wrong button something bad will happen and you will lose all your data. Not a bundle of confidence by any means. My husband, on the other hand, is quite confident about doing these type of things and I’m happy to report that he had his new phone up and running in no time, with nary a call to IT support or our children.

How To Lose Ten Pounds

Not long after my husband’s new phone adventure, I decided that, after ten years, it was time to retire our laptop. The old Toshiba is giant by today’s standards and feels like it weighs ten pounds. I was ready for a sleek new model.

Our son is a confirmed Mac user and so after talking to him I decided to take the plunge and get a Mac. After getting over the sticker shock, I made the purchase and he then helped me with setup (full disclosure: he pretty much did it all). After a couple of days working with my new laptop and my son patiently answering a million questions, I was feeling pretty confident that I could navigate on my own and figure out any problems. Then we went home and I was on my own…

Day one went swimmingly and I glowingly reported to my son that I had figured out how to set up wireless printing. Score one for me! I was brimming with confidence! Then came day two and the mysterious appearance of OneDrive.

When I tried to save some documents and pictures, the only option on the drop down list was OneDrive. I didn’t have a clue what OneDrive was and that old fear of pressing the wrong button and losing everything reared its ugly head again, and so I did what any technologically challenged parent would do – I called my son. When I explained the problem he assured me he could help but it was a bit involved and so he would call me later to walk me through it.

Recognizing that the best course of action at that point was to take a break, I shut down for the evening and tried again the next morning before talking to my son. I wish I could tell you that through sheer grit and determination I managed to figure it out, but the truth is when I got on my laptop the next morning, somehow the old familiar options for saving documents appeared and I was back in business. I have absolutely no idea what, if anything, I did to solve the problem, but I decided the best course of action was to invoke the old axiom “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” and carry on.

The Kids Are Alright

My husband and I are very fortunate that both our son and daughter are quite willing and very good at helping us when we run into problems with our devices. Usually a phone call will solve the problem, but there are those situations where hands on help is required. Because we live far away from both of our children, this is not easily accomplished, so we’ll sometimes save up things we need help with until our annual family summer get together. To their credit, they patiently work through our device problems with us when I’m sure they would much rather be relaxing at the beach with their kids.

The video below is a good illustration of the skill level (or lack thereof) that they are working with. In this clip they have just helped us with a phone issue and my husband and I are trying to look like we understand what to do. We were so involved in what we were doing, we had no idea we were being recorded. I think they may have been looking for a bit of comic relief.😂

Now that you have a sense of the technology challenges that the Sisterhood faces, I think you’ll agree it’s a minor miracle that we have been able to get this blog up and running. It was kids to the rescue once again when our son volunteered (with only minor arm twisting and a few tears on my part) to help make it a reality. And I think it’s fair to say that no one is more astonished than we are to find ourselves, almost two years in with more than 80 blog posts published, able to officially call ourselves bloggers! And what I know for sure is:

Betty Would Love That!

We plan on publishing a new post every Monday so stay tuned for our next one entitled “Try A Little Kindness.”