Sometimes hi tech is just more trouble than it's worth. I was reminded of this recently while cat sitting for a friend. She has gadgets galore and I often coveted many of them. Well, no more... one after another, they all went on vacation from their assigned duties.
First, my friend has a timed feeder for her cat. The device held enough food for the entire two weeks that she was gone. Trouble is, if the thing doesn't spit out the food, no one gets fed. On my first day of cat sitting, the cats were a little more excited than usual to see me. I gave them extra pats on the head and a treat when I left. I surveyed the house, checked the litter, and checked the robot vacuum and left.
The next day, the cats were even more excited to see me and I was gratified to know that they were finally learning to appreciate me. I completed my routine and sadly I left without realizing that the feeding machine was not working.
The third day, when the cats were almost frantically excited to see me, I pushed my ego out of the way and grew suspicious. Usually way before the third day, they realize that their parents are away and grow tired of seeing my face come through the door. When I went into the garage where the feeder is kept, I immediately realized that it wasn't working...the container was filled to the brim and the cats were dancing and pointing at it.
I took a quick look at it and realized that, without an instruction book, I wasn't equal to programming it. Luckily I found a bag of food in the pantry and all was well. The cats sighed that they were getting food and I was relieved of the responsibility of them liking me more than I knew they should.
My friend has a third pet... a robot vacuum cleaner. It truly is amazing when it works right, but when my friend went on vacation the robot decided to do the same. It made a half-hearted pass at the house one day, but on one of my visits during the first week I found it hung up on the leg to a desk in the den. I looked at the little screen for information. It said, "My battery is low. Return me to my charger."
So, I picked it up. Immediately, the screen changed and the robot said, "Put me on the floor."
I put it down and the screen changed to "My battery is low. Return me to my charger."
Okay, little fella, I thought. You can't have it both ways. So, I picked it up and carried it to the kitchen to charge up. I checked the next day and it was fully charged. To my knowledge, however, he never left his base again. I guess the trauma of the previous day was just too much for him.
My third techno calamity involved the litter box. My friend had just purchased a fancy new litter box. Oh, it wasn't one of those mechanized ones, but was one that you roll over onto it's top, making it collect all the "debris" in this little drawer. You just empty the drawer and don't have all that shoveling and sifting action ... easy peasy, right? Not for me. It worked a couple of times before the explosion. One day I rolled it over and the top came off.
Obviously, all the "debris" did not end up in handy drawer that day.
I don't know what all this has to do with writing, but just thought I'd remind everyone, as was so clear to me during and after those two weeks, that hi tech is not always the most efficient way to go...
Have a great day.... I'm off to use my pencil to write the lo-tech way for a while.
