Where is a ten year old when you need one?

I hate technology. Last night I was downstairs watching the NBA Finals and surfing channels during commercials. For some reason, one channel with no transmission was apparently programmed into the scanning function. I got tired of seeing the "snow" on the screen when switching channels, so decided to go into the onscreen menu and remove the unwanted channel.

You probably already know the outcome of this little adventure. Now the remote won't scan through the channels at all. I guess I'll give up watching basketball. Or I'll only watch what happens to be playing on ABC. I'll be darned if I will get up and down to switch channels manually. Perhaps I can attach a string to the remote and throw it at the buttons on front of the television and change channels that way. I can retrieve the remote with the string and won't have to get up at all.

This reminds me of the time I almost threw away my VHS/DVD player because it quit playing DVDs. I knew it would cost more to have it repaired than to buy a new one. But I am of the generation that is reluctant to throw away electronics. Thinking maybe a setting was off, I pushed every button and combination of buttons I could think of -- to no avail. Because Lindsey, who was away at school, was due home soon I decided to have her look at the DVD player before doing anything. After all, we still had plenty of VHS videos we could play while waiting for her to return. Sure enough, when Lindsey got home she took one look at the machine and pushed a button that fixed the problem. It was the same button I had pushed twenty times, but for her it worked.

Someone, please come home. The clock on my stereo is blinking and the clock on the DVD player is off an hour, even though the time zone is set correctly (I swear!).

I hate technology ...