TECH SUPPORT PLEASE

I'm a baby boomer who has an iPhone and a MacBook Pro and a Smart TV. (I do NOT have Alexa! I had to draw the line somewhere.) I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to technology but the ROKU TV in the RV, ( that could be a great country western song . . . "The TV in the RV") , this Smart TV has got me feeling pretty stupid.

Consider the Boomer and before generations born before 1950. We were born at a time when the TV  picture was Black and White if you had a TV. Families were lucky to have one car, air planes had propellers and kids walked 5 miles up hill to school every day. The phone, (one per house if you were lucky) sat on a table in the living room and you had to stand next to it when you talked because the cord only reached about 2 feet.  There were no computers, no rockets to the moon, no internet, cell phones or microwaves. It was a simple world where kids entertained themselves with a bag of marbles and a pink Spalding ball that could bounce as high as your roof. If you wanted to tell your friend something you got on your bike and rode over to their house where their mom would probably invite you to say for dinner. Since you didn't have to be home till the street lights came on you always stayed and then ate again when you got home.

The world has changed drastically for us "Old Timers" and some of us have managed to keep up with many of the changes but since things are "improving" at an alarming rate of speed many of us have just thrown in the towel.  Get was a classic example of that. He barely knew how to turn the TV on and as for cell phones . . .  well that was just too high tech for him. He did own a small "flip" phone but never knew how to work it. Dwayne is a bit more in tune with technology in that his phone is one step up from a flip phone, (no fancy iPhone for him). If you suggest he get an iPhone he breaks out in a cold sweat. But he does have a very good mind for mechanical things.

Enter the Roku TV . . .  We are both totally at a loss when it comes to how this crazy thing works. It seems to have something to do with the internet, we have figured out that much but beyond that we are at a loss. The second or so day out in our RV we decided to give the TV a shot and tried to turn the damn thing on. That should be simple enough but for the life of us we could NOT get it to turn on. I have been told that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the hope of getting a different result. WE MUST BE INSANE !!  There sat the two of us pointing a remote at a blank screen pushing the same button over and over with no result. After two days of this I got serious and started to try something different. I found a control panel above the TV, Then I discovered that inside a cabinet the TV was not even plugged in. By day 7 we actually were able to get the Smart TV turned on. Now it was a case of figuring out how to actually get something to play on this thing.  That only took another 4 days.You should have seen the two of us when we actually got Fox News on the TV. (Naturally 'we' had to check the news before anything else.) From Fox News we managed to get Netflix. Now we were really on a roll! But when it came to trying to find a hockey game it all went to hell. For what ever reason the whole thing just fell apart and we were back to square on with NO TV reception of any kind. Being in a camp ground we had WiFi but for some reason the TV just stopped picking up the signal so it wouldn't connect. Once again the "insanity" began of pointing the remote at the TV and pushing the same button OVER AND OVER with hopes of a different result. I finally got wild and crazy and decided to think outside the box.  Remembering how every time I call the cable company at home with a problem the first thing they tell you to do is UNPLUG the TV. Then UNPLUG the router and UNPLUG the modem. Since we are in an RV I had no idea if we had modems or routers so I just started un plugging and turning off EVERYTHING ! Unfortunately turning off the heat, refrigerator and the microwave had no impact on the TV.  BUT turning off a switch on the TV control panel and unplugging the TV resulted in our regaining a connection just in time to catch Fox News just before D fell asleep.  He missed the victory dance I did around the camper but I did it anyway.

Sadly we had to pack up this morning and leave that camp ground so we will ge to go through all this once again when we get to our next stop. Maybe he will catch my dance then.