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walkitoutI de-Halloweened the house (no, there is still an amazing amount of candy -- I just removed the decorations) and put up the fall decorations.
I watched a couple episodes of TRMS.
I had a lovely chat with M. A. and I scootered / biked to school, but it was raining, which is why M. and I didn't walk, and why I picked up A. with the car.
A. went with the sitter today for Adventures, while T. and I hang out. I'm also working through some paperwork (registering for T.'s basketball in January, dealing with mail, putting the trash bins back, etc.).
T. told me he wanted a dimmer switch installed because his fan wasn't dimming anymore. He pitched a fit when I asked when the batteries were changed and to see the instructions. He switched the batteries eventually and found the instructions. It turns out that in the battery compartment, there is a dipswitch that turns the dimmer feature on and off (no, I don't know why anyone would do that). It was set to off. I fixed that. And it also turned out that he was using the delayed turn off the light button to try to dim the light, rather than the on/off button press and hold to try to dim the light. So, he was using the remote incorrectly AND there was a switch inside the battery compartment that needed to be flipped. I explained to him why I really wanted the instructions and acknowledged that the batteries were, in this case, not the problem.
I feel like interacting with my son is teaching me more about why people who call IT act the way they do than the years I spent actually working in the computer industry. I am NOT one for reading the manual. I AM the person who methodically saves all the manuals she isn't reading, and who is very good at finding manuals online when someone has lost a manual. I'm increasingly suspicious that this is actually what manuals are for, and they really ought to be written as troubleshooting guides NOT as instructions.
I watched a couple episodes of TRMS.
I had a lovely chat with M. A. and I scootered / biked to school, but it was raining, which is why M. and I didn't walk, and why I picked up A. with the car.
A. went with the sitter today for Adventures, while T. and I hang out. I'm also working through some paperwork (registering for T.'s basketball in January, dealing with mail, putting the trash bins back, etc.).
T. told me he wanted a dimmer switch installed because his fan wasn't dimming anymore. He pitched a fit when I asked when the batteries were changed and to see the instructions. He switched the batteries eventually and found the instructions. It turns out that in the battery compartment, there is a dipswitch that turns the dimmer feature on and off (no, I don't know why anyone would do that). It was set to off. I fixed that. And it also turned out that he was using the delayed turn off the light button to try to dim the light, rather than the on/off button press and hold to try to dim the light. So, he was using the remote incorrectly AND there was a switch inside the battery compartment that needed to be flipped. I explained to him why I really wanted the instructions and acknowledged that the batteries were, in this case, not the problem.
I feel like interacting with my son is teaching me more about why people who call IT act the way they do than the years I spent actually working in the computer industry. I am NOT one for reading the manual. I AM the person who methodically saves all the manuals she isn't reading, and who is very good at finding manuals online when someone has lost a manual. I'm increasingly suspicious that this is actually what manuals are for, and they really ought to be written as troubleshooting guides NOT as instructions.