Pages

Monday, April 18, 2011

Road Trip

In June we are having a gathering of sorts with my cousins from Florida and their families.  It is going to be held in Columbus which is about two hours from here.  With the 20 in my family and the 20 or so in their family we are talking about a lot of people with A TON of kids ranging in age from 3 to 18.  We thought it would be a good idea to scout the area to make sure we would have appropriate accommodations for all of them, plus things for them to do so we could keep the chaos to a minimum. 

I was with my parents, my sister Laura, and my aunt and uncle.  Most of the day seemed like we were doing the "Who's on First" routine with Laurel and Hardy because they were all talking and only catching parts of the conversation.  We were driving in a city that we were not familiar with, and getting directions from my aunt who was sitting in the back seat and distracted by talking to my mom.  Needless to say, by the end of the day we were slap happy and tired. 

We went up to our hotel room and my dad went to lay down in bed while Laura, my mom and I were discussing the things we had done today and looking at the information we gathered.  After about 15 minutes my dad came out because he couldn't get the TV to work.  At the same time I was talking to one of my other aunts on the phone so Laura went in to help him.  Before I can even get off the phone and assist them they had called the front desk to tell them our TV was broken. A few minutes later we heard a knock on our door and there was the maintenance man.  All three of them go into the bedroom and I hear Laura explaining the problem.  I made the assumption that Laura would have known how to use the remote and there really was a problem.

You know the old saying about what happens when you assume something.  Well, it couldn't have been more true in this situation.  A few minutes later the poor man walked out of the bedroom shaking his head.  I could hear Laura and Dad laughing uncontrollably.  When she could stop laughing enough to tell me what was wrong, I too, was shaking my head in disbelief that two such educated people were defeated by such elementary technology. 

At the top of the remote were all different colored buttons for the Pay-Per-View options like in room movies and games.  Nothing really happens when you hit those buttons.  It turns out that the way you work the remote is to simply change the channel. 

I have instructed both of them to consult me BEFORE calling the front desk in the future with anything technological.  On the bright side, at least the man did not have to come up to fix a clogged toilet.  It could have been so much worse. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wish I would have been there, Kate! Ann