Editor:
Our recent permanent change of station move gave me more trouble than usual. Of course, moving with two children under the age of 3 years is challenging; a deployed husband makes it harder, too — but it’s nothing that scores of military families haven’t done before, right?
Then what was so hard about it? Trying to keep up with the inventory and checking off box numbers while keeping my active boys from getting steamrolled by movers? Nope. Navigating the sea of household goods and boxes and packing paper like a minefield? Nope. Finding a place to put all our precious possessions yet again? Nope.
The most frustrating part of this move came three weeks after the movers left, a week after my beloved husband came home (thankfully) from deployment and three days after the inevitable trip to the local Best Buy store. Since we didn’t want to store it, we sold our television before the deployment and I agreed to let my husband get a ridiculously large new one when he came home. What I didn’t realize was that along with the super-fancy flat screen you need — according to the salesperson and my husband — the Blu-ray player, HDMI cables, wireless internet TV connection, etc. And since my degree is only in nursing, and not in computer science/networking — we had to get the Geek Squad to come set everything up.
After our “geek” was done and I had written down the appropriate notes in the event of a power outage (or when we PCS again in 10 months) we tried the whole set-up. It didn’t work, of course, because I needed a password for the wireless router I had set up five years, two kids, two deployments and three PCS moves ago!
All I’m saying is, I’m not that old — and even I remember the days when you’d buy an appliance, simply plug it in and it would work. No networking, no apps, no software to download, no programming, no passwords — just the on-off switch.
For those of you who have felt the frustration — sing with me now:
Ohhh, the flat screen’s connected to the Blu-ray,
The Blu-ray’s connected to the Bose system,
The Bose system’s connected to the cable box,
And which remote turns what on?
Boom-boom-boom-boom.
Kate Disney
Fort Leavenworth
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Editor:
Our recent permanent change of station move gave me more trouble than usual. Of course, moving with two children under the age of 3 years is challenging; a deployed husband makes it harder, too — but it’s nothing that scores of military families haven’t done before, right?
Then what was so hard about it? Trying to keep up with the inventory and checking off box numbers while keeping my active boys from getting steamrolled by movers? Nope. Navigating the sea of household goods and boxes and packing paper like a minefield? Nope. Finding a place to put all our precious possessions yet again? Nope.
The most frustrating part of this move came three weeks after the movers left, a week after my beloved husband came home (thankfully) from deployment and three days after the inevitable trip to the local Best Buy store. Since we didn’t want to store it, we sold our television before the deployment and I agreed to let my husband get a ridiculously large new one when he came home. What I didn’t realize was that along with the super-fancy flat screen you need — according to the salesperson and my husband — the Blu-ray player, HDMI cables, wireless internet TV connection, etc. And since my degree is only in nursing, and not in computer science/networking — we had to get the Geek Squad to come set everything up.
After our “geek” was done and I had written down the appropriate notes in the event of a power outage (or when we PCS again in 10 months) we tried the whole set-up. It didn’t work, of course, because I needed a password for the wireless router I had set up five years, two kids, two deployments and three PCS moves ago!
All I’m saying is, I’m not that old — and even I remember the days when you’d buy an appliance, simply plug it in and it would work. No networking, no apps, no software to download, no programming, no passwords — just the on-off switch.
For those of you who have felt the frustration — sing with me now:
Ohhh, the flat screen’s connected to the Blu-ray,
The Blu-ray’s connected to the Bose system,
The Bose system’s connected to the cable box,
And which remote turns what on?
Boom-boom-boom-boom.
Kate Disney
Fort Leavenworth
