I MARRIED AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER!

I married an electrical engineer.
All my stories should start out with that.
Before we were married, the engineer in my life had taken apart most electrical things he could safely get his hands on. He built his own amplifier and a set of speakers. His electrical talents were well established before he ever entered university to take engineering.
Our first apartment after we were married had two bedrooms. Part of the second bedroom was set up as his project room. It has some of the strangest electrical gadgets that scared the bejeepers out of me. I would go in from time to time, but not very often. This one particular evening I decided to go in and see what was up. He had pliers in hand and was into the back of something very electrical looking. I asked if he ever got an electrical shock. Just as he was about to say “no, never” his distracted hand hit something upon which sparks, Bill and expletives flowed across the room in front of me. He did not see what was so funny as i burst out laughing. Ignorance is bliss but being a nurse, I knew CPR! We made a pack after he recovered that I would stay out of his way when he played with his electrical things. And thus the reason that I have so little to do with all electrical things in our home.
It has worked out for us. But as a result,I have watched the electronics come and go into our homes without too much knowledge of just how cutting edge these things are.
Our first TV was a black and white which really was another piece of furniture to set my ornaments upon. There was no remote or more than a channel or two. You plugged it in and turned the knob on or off. You even had to get up to adjust the volume. I miss the good old days.
The tape cassette, the CD player, the VHS player, the DVD player marched into our lives. And with each evolution, Bill connected, wired and hooked up the collection of them together. He connected the whole set to the amplifier and speakers long before sound surround became the norm in homes. Of course every electrical evolution meant another family tutorial was needed so that we could listen to our music or watch the TV when he wasn't around.
Somewhere in the midst of this came our first home computer. It was the summer of 85 or 86. We purchased it in Alberta. Bill set that baby up between our two babies in the back seat to bring it home to Regina. I really did not understand the concept of home computers, but Bill sure was excited. It had 500 mega bites of memory. Less than a quarter of the memory of most of those key chain memory sticks. He set it up and played endlessly on the "dos" prompted screen. I may have used it once or twice to write a letter. I had no idea what this machine was all about and thought it was just another electronic toy for Bill. Since then we have never been without a computer or six.
I have watched Bill replace computers with bigger and better models. I have received Christmas gifts of CD burners for Christmas. What the heck was a CD burner? I have seen him take them apart and add to the more internal memory. I have seen him bring them back to life after they have died a virus infected life. I have seen him do the equivalent of a brain transplant on them. I have seen him build a complete computer from parts bought from electronic specialty stores.
I have watched our digital pictures appear from our camera to the computer with a simple plug in. AND just when I thought it couldn't get more complicated I watched him marry our electronics to our computers. Double oi vey!
Electrically we have seen and done it all thus far. So why is it, that each time I am at home alone and want to watch a show or play a CD, or listen to my music which is now buried deep within one of the computers, that I stand before the new 50 inch plasma flat screen TV longing for the antiquated on/off button? But no luck. Instead I have to play Russian roulette with several of the 7 remotes that line up in a row, just slightly askew to the right of my beloved engineer husband's chair.
I clear my brain and try to remember the tutorial. My shaking sweaty hands reach for several of the remotes. I have to put one back quickly as it is the wrong one, ahhh! After some g'fingerpoking, I manage to wake up the computer to turn on the TV to make the choice of what I want to do media wise. I think I shall listen to my relaxation Cd, just to soothe the electrically challenged mind.

WKH