Thursday, March 2, 2023

Technology Curse

My husband loves technology. I like it when it is useful. There are somethings he understands better than me and vice versa. For example, through my job and my schooling, I have learned a lot about spreadsheets that he doesn't understand, and he knows more about why cell phones work because he likes to learn about that kind of thing. Between the two of us, we have a fairly good base knowledge. 

November 2019, we had to get a new furnace because the other one broke down and was leaking stuff that made it dangerous and more expensive to repair. When we did so, they gave us a Nest thermostat that can be controlled through an app on the phone, on the Alexa device, and on the wall. A few days ago, all of these forms of control failed. Chad went into the hall to see if it was just not connecting to the Wi-Fi, but it was completely not working. The only thing he could do was reset it and the apps. After about an hour of him yelling at the thing, he got it working better than it was before it bonked. Now, it is on a weird schedule and will only stay at the temperature I want it during the day for about a half hour because the default schedule believes we are not home during certain hours. It is not hard to fix, but it can get a bit tedious on cooler days. (I may need to just put the app on my phone as well.) Even though it can be frustrating, it is still not as frustrating as it was to have to live in a cold house with only space heaters for a week or two for the furnace to be installed. 

I love that we can have technology that allows us to control things with our voice. When it is working properly, it is a lot more covenant. (I know my bedroom/office is down the hall, but I have had a lot of work to keep up on lately.) The problem is that if that main component does not work, we can have a big problem on our hands if not fixed in a timely manner. Chad would love to have more smart devices in our home. I am just not sure I want to be held hostage by the house if something were to malfunction. 

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