I had a man who worked for me several years ago who, when things didn’t go his way, often said “That’s so flustrating.” I found his mispronunciation of the word frustrating but not as frustrating as I find technology.
When I started this story a couple of days ago, I planned a tale about technology and a recent technological failure I experienced. My frustrating issues were man made. They could have been avoided with proper information. I just didn’t have it.
I was attempting to open a keyless entry door but failed each time I tried to enter the code. I checked and rechecked my instructions but failed no matter what I did. I reached out to the guy who provided the code, and he resent the same five numbers multiple times. They never worked. Ultimately, he unlocked the door remotely.
When “remotely” worked I was a bit relieved. I did, however, need better information if I attempted to enter again. That’s when he asked, “Did you press the check mark button after the five-digit code?”
My answer was simple. “No! You never mentioned the check mark button.” My problem was solved but I was still frustrated. Good information could have avoided the whole thing. I wasted forty frustrating minutes for nothing.
Technical things, like keyless entries, are unforgivable. They only work if you provide proper information, and then they still may throw you a curve.
I copied and pasted a portion of an old blog to begin this one. The subject matter was similar, and I thought my old words would make a nice transition to my new ones. I was happy with the results, and nearing the end of my story, when I hit the save button. I planned to review what I had written to make sure everything flowed together. When I hit save, I got the following message.
“Your entry has been permanently deleted.”
I lost everything. The original story I wrote seven years ago has disappeared from my site and the new story I was working on is gone. It’s as if they never existed. There’s no delete everything button, but that’s what happened. And then it hit me.
When I first started writing, Ruth often told me to rethink my choice of words. She didn’t want me to be unkind. I think she may have thought that I was making fun of my former employee. I’m not. I’m just telling a tale about a frustrating incident. If he wrote this story, he’d call it flustrating. I’d find that frustrating.
Note to self. When it comes to technology, trust nothing with a button.
Editor’s Note: This just happened. When I post each story, three older stories pop up. They’re available at the bottom of the most recent blog. They’re related to the current one. You have to read the new blog directly from my site. Facebook reads won’t work. Neither will emailed versions. If you read directly from the site, ihaveastoryforyou.net, they’ll pop up.
If you want to give it a look, the original blog, I Just Want It to Work, is back. It wasn’t there last night. It’s gotta be Ruth messing with me again.