Ah, technology

I would have loved to have seen the expression on this 911 operator's face as she was taking this call. I imagine it was a look of resigned defeat, as if she'd finally just given up on humanity.



Although in this woman's defense not all cars have locks that can be easily pulled up manually. In my Mini Cooper, the locks automatically engage when I go over 5mph and when down, the lock is almost flush with the door. However, when you pull the door handle the first time, it unlocks the car. Hence the annoying double pull on the door handle to get out. It's one of the Mini's many quirks. I don't know how many times I've given someone a ride in my car and this has happened:

We stop and first they have a hard time figuring out where the door handle is. It's a little round, silver thing way up on the door as close to the front of the car as the manufacturer could put a door handle. They lean forward and pull on the handle and it doesn't open. Instead of letting go and trying again, they continue to hold the handle, but just pull harder, as if the handle is just stuck. Then they sit back and pause for a second, trying to look for something else that might be a door handle, since that weird-looking round thing didn't work. And every time I have to say, "You have to pull it twice." I could just remember to hit the unlock button when I stop the car so this won't be an issue, but I've gotten used to the double pull, so I don't think about it. Plus, the lock/unlock and window control buttons are in the center of the car, right under the stereo and A/C controls, so it's not very convenient and easy to use. Bottom line, the Mini has some annoying features, but even if I can't pull the lock up with my fingers easily, the car still has a safety mechanism where I can open the door and get out if I need to.

Also, I have to wonder how this woman got the car door locked in the first place. So, she got in, tried the start the car and her door was locked? Or did she arrive, turn off the car, not have the door unlocked yet, then the car wouldn't start? So many variables.

In addition to cars presenting challenges, there are also the anxiety-inducing technological breakdowns when watching TV. What happens when the batteries die on a TV remote? Catastrophe. And obviously the TV won't work at all. Granted, if you've got some overly-complicated, penis-induced TV/cable/electronic device set-up with some sort of mega universal remote, the death of said remote could make TV watching difficult, if not impossible. But I'm talking about a regular TV by itself. When I lived on the Central American political refugee camp in the mid-90's, I came in to watch the Spanish language news and telenovellas one evening and one of the refugees was just sitting on the couch, looking forlorn. He informed me that the TV was broken.

"What do you mean, it's broken?"
"It's broken. Doesn't work. Won't turn on." And he tapped on the remote.
"Oh, it's probably just the batteries. But the TV still works. Look!" I get up and manually turn the TV on.
"No, it's broken," he replied as he sat there on the couch, looking at that crazy gringa actually getting up to press buttons on the TV. Madness!

This, of course, was the same refugee who flew into a panic when I announced that I was leaving the next day for a two week vacation.

"But will you do the grocery shopping before you go?"
"No, I already went to the store this week, on the regular day. I'm sure someone else will do the shopping next week."
"But, we're out of food!"
"What are you talking about? The pantry is full."
"But we don't have any way to prepare the food."
"Uh, the kitchen works..."
"But you didn't buy enough oil. We only have half a bottle left. That's not going to last very long and then we'll have no way to cook food."

Sigh.