M. Giant's
Velcrometer
Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks


Wednesday, May 03, 2006  

Tale of the Tape

Trash is the one in this family with the grasp of high technology. She can take a computer apart and put it back together and everything. What's more, it'll work afterwards. It took a few years to train our families that when they had computer questions they should ask her and not me, but now they do.

She does have the odd blind spot, however. For instance, she frequently finds herself flummoxed by the TV remote. There have been numerous occasion when she's called me downstairs, unable to operate the television because of something M. Small or I have done to the device since she last used it. I'll go downstairs, hit a couple of buttons, and hand it back to her, its functionality restored. I still acknowledge her technological superiority; this is just one little glitch. It's like how I can never decide when to capitalize the word President in my 24 recaps. Apparently I'm guilty of looking a little irritated when I have to help her with the remote, for which I am sorry. For reasons that will soon become apparent.

Last night, she was watching American Idol in the study, on the little TV/VCR I use for recapping. The study has a back door that opens out into our backyard, and M. Small was going in and out of there while I was working on Trash's new bike outside. After I finished with that, I gave M. Small his bath and got him put to bed. A few minutes later, the show ended and Trash complained that she was unable to change the channel.

I became filled with a sense of foreboding.

In the mornings, when we're both hurried and harried and trying to get out the door, we sometimes let M. Small watch a few minutes of a Baby Einstein video in the study to take some of the pressure off of us so we can do what we need to do. And when it's time to go, the door to the backyard and the garage is right there, so we're able to effect a smooth exit. Normally, at the end of a late evening of recapping, I'm supposed to take the 24 tape out of the machine and swap it for a Bay Einstein tape. One less thing to deal with the next morning when things are hectic. I'm pretty good about remembering. But Trash's complaint about the remote not working clued me in that maybe the night before…I hadn't.

Indeed, I took the remote, hit the display key, and discovered that the VCR had been recording for fifty-two minutes. When I'd left off recapping the night before, I was fifteen minutes into the episode. Now the last forty-five had been replaced by so much amateur warbling and judge feuding. Suddenly, the capitalization of the word "president" became the last of my 24-recap-related concerns.

I asked Trash what the hell had happened. All she could say was that M. Small had been in there, playing with the remote, and that she hadn't been able to change channels since. "Why didn't you tell me that?" I demanded. This is where my history of irritated faces at having to fix the remote control for her becomes germane to the story.

Now, I could ask Sars for an extension, but that'll just put me behind for next week, which I don't need. So with Trash's help, I was able to get a hold of an electronic version of the episode by means which I am assured are completely legal (and also kind of expensive, so I'm inclined to believe that). Now I'm the proud owner of a membership to some website, and a hole in my fourth tape of Season Five that'll have to wait to be filled until reruns come around on A&E or a local affiliate some time this fall.

Trash feels really bad that this happened while she was in the room, and that she didn't say anything to me until it was too late. As for me, I'm going to try a lot harder to remember to swap out that tape before I go to bed at night.

And also work on looking less irritated. It was tough last night, though.

posted by M. Giant 8:46 PM 4 comments

4 Comments:

A friend of mine who had carefully arranged to have her wedding video-taped some years ago was dismayed to find her husband had taped an episode of "Dr. Who" over it, only a month after the gala event. I think she's got you beat — no website to recapture that.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at May 4, 2006 at 7:22 AM  

Ahh yes.. wedding videos - a friend of our was going to video our wedding, and despite his wife's (repeated) reminders to put new batteries in the camera, he missed that bit. So somewhere out there (I've never seen it, 6 years later) is an interview of my husband all cute and nervous in his tux n' tie...but that was where the battery died.

By Blogger Maya, at May 4, 2006 at 12:31 PM  

So are you telling us yout STILL don't have Tivo? Are you NUTS?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at May 4, 2006 at 6:50 PM  

I thought you were going to say that you found Small watching 24 in the morning.

"Daa? I gon' needa hacksaw."

By Anonymous Anonymous, at May 6, 2006 at 2:06 PM  

Post a Comment


Listed on BlogShares www.blogwise.com
ads!
buy my books!
professional representation
Follow me on Twitter
donate!
ads
Pictures
notify
links
loot
mobile
other stuff i
wrote
about
archives