Grandma's Hero

I was feeling kinda down in the dumps yesterday when I got a call from my
dad. my grandma's Cable Box was on the fritz and my dad had been working to
fix it for an hour with no avail. I tried to trouble shoot it, over the
phone but he had a little too much frustration and too little patience for
me and my nerd talk.

the thing about my family is that I'm the IT Department for my family. I fix
computers, download photos, repair projects, and install TV/VCR/DVD/Cable
components. usually I get so immersed in what I'm doing that I tend to
forget that no one can understand my logic when I'm in this zone. The way I
set up my grandma's TV is no exception.

See, here's the deal, my Grandma is old (like most grandmas) and she doesn't
get how technology works (again, like most grandmas). so I simplify things
for her so she and work them. for example, I rigged up her TV/VCR/DVD/Cable
components through an AV switch box with big friendly buttons and labeled it
all with Sharpies. now whenever she wants to watch something she just has to
click down the big friendly button and the input switches over to that unit.
I did this because sometimes the power goes out (for whatever reason) and
all my "programming" of these devices get rest. so a hardwired system means
less confusion for grandma.

but I digress...

so before heading out to bowling I jaunted over to Grandma's to assess the
situation. my first thought was that someone was tinkering with the set up
(hard wiring usually results in lots of tangled wires), and my dad had
mentioned one cable was not plugged in. but on my arrival I noticed that
everything was exactly where I left it. so I started working with the
remote.

it was the damnest thing, I could get the program guide to come up, but no
matter the show I selected the TV would just stay blank. I turned it off,
turned it on, wiggled the cables, pulled the memory card thingy (very
technical). meanwhile poor Grandma was blaming her self, I reassured her by
saying "if it's taking me this long to figure it out, it would be impossible
for anyone else to." (sometimes I lie to Grandma.)

Finally after some tinkering it dawned on me the one thing that no one had
tried, rebooting the cable box. I remembered that because I was the one that
set it up the plug was ridiculously far behind the Entertainment Center, so
naturally, no one would think to unplug it (I have the longest arms in the
family).

once the obvious solution presented it's self I yanked the cord, plugged it
back in and the beast kicked back to life.

...and of course, being the tinker-er I am, I reconnected the power to a
surge protector with a big red switch so I could talk her through this on
the phone next time it happens.

she was so happy she got up and gave me a grandma hug and said, "being an
old person without TV is so hard, we're (the family) so lucky we have you,
you can't ever move away."

a small victory, but I have to admit it does feel nice to be appreciated
every once in a while.