Opening gifts this morning, I found a new clock radio among them.
A couple of nice new shirts, an oven mitt with my face repeated at least 100 times on it, a box of assorted dark chocolates. People also gave me Amazon gift cards and even some folding green cash.
I've already ordered miscellaneous stuff with the Amazon cards, and bought myself a new pair of shoes that are not made like sneakers with the cash. They will be my funeral/wedding shoes. I did that yesterday.
Today, I took the new clock radio my wife had given me into the bedroom, dreading the initial setup. Every electronic device now has hordes of buttons on it, each with an iconic label that generally seems meaningless to me. But, there's always the manual. This clock radio was no different. There are at least ten buttons on it, each of which changes something or activates something or has multiple functions.
Holding my breath, I plugged in the wire from the wall wart that powers the radio. On its LED display was just the number 2. Consulting the manual, I discovered that number represented the time zone for the factory-set time. Looking in the manual, I discovered that the number 2 meant EST. I'm living on CST time. So, following the instructions, I pressed the forward icon-labeled button once. the number changed to 3. Then, I was instructed to press the "Enter" button, which looks just like the right angle arrow icon on many other devices.
The time was correct. Following more instructions, I went through the sequence for other settings. All were correct as preset at the factory. A coin battery installed from the bottom of the radio maintains the settings, even if the power goes out.
Next, since this is a radio, I had to select my favorite radio station. Back to the instruction book. Another button switched the radio to AM, and the forward and back arrow buttons let me page through the frequency setting 10 KHz per press. soon, I landed on 830, my go-to radio station, a CBS affiliate station that plays on multiple radios in our house 24/7. Hourly and half-hourly news briefings are the reason. The Enter button made my choice the default. Presets are available for other choices, but I don't need them, so I was done.
And that was it. The radio has many other functions, but I wont use them. It can show the indoor temperature. It can change from F to C to display temperature. I didn't bother with those, because viewing them requires pressing other buttons, which I will not do. Another option lets me use a 24 hour clock display, which I do not need. I also don't use the radio for alarms. I wake when I wake or when my wife awakens me. If I need an alarm, my cell phone can do that.
And speaking of my cell phone, the new radio also has a USB charging port, which is handy, since I've been charging my phone with a cord plugged into the charger wall wart in a power strip on the floor. The cord will not stay on my bedside table where I want it. Now, with the USB cable plugged into my new clock radio, that annoyance is ended.
In the end, I worried overmuch about all those icon-labeled buttons. It took less than three minutes to set up my new device. Thanks, Kathy!
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That was a pleasant gift to me from your Christmas story intended or not, and I hope there will be lots more smiles today for all of us.
Merry Christmas MineralMan!
My Honda HRV has a radio. with BUTTONS !!! a CD player with play stop fast forward fast reverse.. that's about it-- no GPS no nothin... gas pedal, break, speedo, tach, MPG ave, seat belts blah blah... very basic..
...that's one reason i did NOT get a MAZDA CX-5, as much as I wanted one.. sitting in the lot I could NOT figure out the 'human/computer interface.. couldn't even set radio stations...
The body's brain is second in speed only to the emotional brain.
Slowest is the thinking brain.
Talking about setup time............
Reminds me of all those Christmases spent doing "some assembly required" for my family in the past.....
Thanks for the neat story, Mineral Man..........
Technology has made it possible to have things that do much more than they ever could before, if you can figure out how to make them do them. There are always too many buttons, and each button might be able to do more than one thing if you press it multiple times or hold it down or whatever. It can be daunting.
I also have a Clock Radio of Mystery. It, too, has many buttons. But I didn't have to set the time; it has a dock for my iPhone, and when I placed the phone in the dock it told the clock what time it was. It even tells the clock when to switch to/from daylight savings time. I can also play music from iTunes on my phone through the clock radio, and use the music as the alarm. But it took me a long time to figure out which buttons to press and hold to set the alarm, and it was so complicated that once I set the alarm I never changed the time, so if I have to get up early to be somewhere and the cats haven't gotten to me first, I always get up at the time the clock radio tells me, which is the time I first set and now can't figure out how to change. That's unless I hit the snooze bar, which gives me another 10 minutes, and I could change that too if I could figure out how. I could also use the radio function, but I usually don't. That also involves pressing buttons. If I did use it I would set it to 99.5 FM, though, not 830 AM. (You listen to WCCO? Damn, you're old! 
) I can make Alexa play the radio, which is easier than setting the clock radio. "Alexa, play KSJN!" Just now I discovered that Alexa would play WCCO for me, too, but it was some guy talking, which I didn't want to listen to. He sounded like Tom Brokaw talking about submarines.
Isn't technology wonderful? Merry Christmas!
