Sunday, February 15, 2009

Putting the Water on

There were days, many years ago, when I would watch “Star Trek” or “The Jetsons” and wish I could have the dishes done, beds made, floors swept, doors open, get any information I needed and basically have any chore done with the simple pushing of a button or a voice command to the computer. Others with more time and resources have ventured into delivering the automation so many of us have wished for over the years. I have grown to appreciate all of the newest innovations that were developed since watching the futuristic programs that depicted the drudgery basically eliminated from the lives of their characters. These thoughts were fresh in my mind this morning as I got up to put on the coffee water. I should have the ability to get up at the appointed time finding the water has already been heated and dripped down into the waiting pot. I bought the pot with this feature over a week ago to replace a coffee maker that no longer worked. I tried to see if I could set it without looking at the directions the day I took the coffee maker out of the box. I had a pot with the timer feature before, and it did not seem this complicated to set it. I would have to refer to the directions, later. The next morning I got up to get my coffee, and told myself I would add setting the coffee pot timer to my before bed routine. And since I had already put my coffee water on for that morning, I simply went on with my day.

This has repeated day after day, with my intention to get back to the directions and set the timer and make my next morning a little easier. “I’ll do it when I have time,” I tell myself. Now it has become a joke, me the techie who longed for automation wanting someone else to come along and set my timer. How hard can it be? So finally, out come the directions. They were still in my "to file" pile. The sad part is it took all of 60 seconds to see what I needed to do and to set my coffeemaker for tomorrow morning. The saying, "You have to take time to make time," rolls through my head. I'm glad I didn't have to call the Geek Squad on this one.