Last week, my grandmother told me that the TV in her bedroom didn't work. I went into her bedroom and turned on the TV. "No," she said, "it's the remote. It won't work." I looked at the batteries - AAA's - and told her maybe they needed to be replaced, and I would get her some more. However, I had just been to the store to do her shopping, so I told her I was not returning that day... but soon. Meanwhile, I determined that the new universal remote control we got a few months ago for her living room television would also work on her bedroom TV. So I told her to carry it with her when she went to bed at night and use it in both rooms until we could return with batteries.
Meanwhile, SHE went to the store (the very same afternoon with a friend), and she got some AAA batteries. She insisted that they did not solve her problem. AND... she told me a few days later, "Now neither one of those remotes is working. That new one worked for about 3 days, and now it's not working either!" So my wonderful husband went over to check out the remote situation. He said he knew in reason what she had done to cause the new remote control not to work - she had accidentally punched the VCR or Satellite buttons and it was no longer in "TV mode." Sure enough, this is what had happened, but the batteries did not do the trick in the bedroom, so she needed a new universal remote control for that room. My husband got her one and programmed it, and he explained again about punching the TV button if ever the remote controls didn't work. We figure she won't remember that if it happens again, but at least we will know the solution when she calls us.
So, when my cousin sent this video, I had to laugh. Not only did it come on the heels of this experience, but it also ties in with how much complex red tape there is to changing to a new Medicare Part D prescription drug provider (which was my task for today). It also speaks to the never-ending barrage of commercials that now crowd our airwaves about the ensuing switch to DTV. A friend of ours commented just recently that he had just about HAD IT with those commercials and how rampant they are! I sent him this video... he loved it!
I hope you don't think it rude of me to share this video here, and that you realize I share it in the hopes we can all find a little levity in these situations. Having said that... here goes!
3 comments:
Hi Debbie
It has been a while since I was here but I just caught up on all your posts since I was here last.
That video, I had seen before, but it is more truth than comedy even though it is funny. I meet many people just like that lady almost every day on the road. Technology is moving way to fast even for us boomers, and has far outpaced our older family members.
Our experience taking care of my Mom for the last two summers have netted several such incidents as the battery/remote one. My dear mother could not get her blood pressure machine to work, so she took the bus to WalMart and bough another one. After getting it home it also would not work so the next day she bought yet another one only to have the same results when she put the batteries in it. She showed them to me a few days later and informed me they were all junk.
I asked when her original cuff that we had bought for her had quit working, and she said when she put new batteries in it. It was working fine, but she thought it was time for new batteries. I opened up all three battery compartments and reinstalled the batteries correctly and she had three blood pressure machines that worked fine. We took two back to WalMart after two days of looking for her receipt that she always puts in the kitchen drawer where we can find it. Both were in her smock pocket hanging in the closet.
I may have told you but Mom was diagnosed with dementia and delusions this summer and can no longer live alone so is with my younger sister at the moment, but no one knows how long that will last. We found a very nice nursing home/assisted living facility she could have went right into from the hospital, but sis pitched such a fit and kept insisting there was nothing wrong with "HER" mother that my older brother who holds all the power of attornies let her take her to Missouri. Of course there is already problems and she is leaving Mom alone while she works and goes to night school, which was completely against her doctors recommendations. That pretty much took us out of the loop as my sister blocked our phone numbers so we can no longer call Mom and talk to her.
Yesterday, 12 6 08 at 2:30 a.m. we received a phone call from one of our 35 year old twin daughters and were informed the other twin had just been checked and rechecked and had been diagnosed with MS. Now we are waiting to see what the neurologists say as far as which type of MS so we can decide if we will have to quit traveling for however long and go help out there, or if it will be controllable to some extent. We are praying for the latter as that daughter has three children, 14, 12, and 2 and finishes at MSU this week and will graduate in May after her student teaching semester with certification in elementary, middle school, and three individual certifications in addition, English, Math, and Child Development. She has worked long and hard for five years to finish her schooling and has a 3.94 average, so this is quite a horrific blow to her and her family. Of course we will do whatever is necessary but we are praying this does not bring her dream of being a teacher to an end.
I still enjoy reading your adventures with your grandmother and identify with much you say. Of course I have been gone for a while because my new birthday present of July this year had a major hard drive crash and I am just now getting around to getting all my bookmarks set back up.
God Bless each and every one.
JJ
JJ - so glad to hear from you again, but also we are sorry to hear about your daughter. She will be in our prayers.
Debbie
Oh my gosh, that is too funny!
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