Friday, April 18, 2008

Dumb and Dumberer

I am a computer tech.
At least I have been in the recent past, that is what I went to school for, two associates degrees in computer technology; apparently, that doesn't extend to digital cameras.

I was at Mim's yesterday, she laughingly said "You don't have to tell anyone..." well, no, I don't, but I will anyway just because I don't actually have to face anyone to do it.
After my camera mysteriously froze day before yesterday, I poked and prodded it, worried it and wrestled with it, thinking I had really broken the darn thing. The reason I thought it was broken is because usually if I try to use it cold (and it was a very cool picture I was trying to take on a very cool morning!) it opens up the lens, the scene shows on the viewer and then "low battery" pops up, it closes the lens and shuts off! Well, it didn't shut the lens and it didn't shut off on that morning, so I figure I've done it! I broke it trying to use it when it was cold.
When the camera first comes on you get a message saying something about customer service and an 800 number, I wrote it down and on my way to Winnemucca to work for the day, I called. I waited on hold for I don't know how long, maybe 15 minutes, before some very nice lady with a slight Asian accent asks me "How can I help you?" I told her what the camera had done and all my subsequent efforts to 'undo' it, and in a quiet, patient voice this woman says to me, a computer tech mind you! "Did you plug the camera in to recharge the battery?"

...in the seconds of silence that followed, I wondered how many years of college it would take to figure that one out.

2 comments:

Mim said...

Oh you told!! Plugging it in and charging the battery can still be called "fixing it" you did fix it. The camera works now.
I'm loving my new fiber my Feel Good present! Thank you again.

Leigh said...

Oh lordy. Been there, done that! It's amazing how the simplest things can confound us the most. ;)