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I got my folks through their telemedicine appointments. My dad’s primary care doc wants him to see an endocrinologist since his diabetes remains uncontrolled and he refuses any treatment involving needles. I may or may not be able to convince him to go. My mom’s cardiologist thinks things are going ok but how could he learn anything from video interviewing someone who can’t remember if she took any meds or had any symptoms? But he renewed all her prescriptions and she was able to do what she really wanted - go to Costco to pick them up. My dad says she even remembered to get them on one of her trips there. I wonder if the pharmacists hide when they see her coming?
The Visio speaker bar attached to their living room tv died and we had to drive over to switch the sound back to the tv speaker. Because my dad can’t see well enough and my mom can’t think well enough, and I can’t walk them through the multiple remotes via phone. So I bought a Roku speaker bar that offered a one remote solution. The Roku is integrated into the speaker bar and it is able to control the tv. The remote also offers voice activation; you hold a button and speak into it like a microphone and it tries to do what you want. I tested it here before taking it over there and it is nearly indistinguishable from magic, though it still doesn’t work with Alexa. We made another trip over there and set it up.
While going through the Roku channels again to set up this new device, I found a new thing called Locast which is like antenna style tv, and my dad is thrilled. He likes to just pick a channel and let it play in the background even when it is just infomercials.
While we were there we looked at the failed Echo Dot. It worked fine when I plugged it in. Who knows what they did to it? This “smart” stuff, it is cool, but not as resilient as “dumb” stuff. Or perhaps our expectations are higher? Some of both, I think.
Steve is feeling a bit under the weather. Like a sinus thing but we are all scared these days so he and I both went for COVID testing this morning. Unlike the swab test I had last summer, this one had you spit in a tiny test tube. It was drive up testing where no testing personnel have to get close to you. You register from home, get a QR code on your phone. Drive up and there is a scanner mounted on a post, and you hold your phone up to it. They hand the kit in through your car window using tongs. The kit has a tiny funnel you use to get your spit into the barcoded tube. You cap the tube, wipe it with an alcohol wipe and put it in a ziploc bag, which goes in a drop box. There is a second drop box for the trash. That’s it. They will text us our results within 48 hours.
The Visio speaker bar attached to their living room tv died and we had to drive over to switch the sound back to the tv speaker. Because my dad can’t see well enough and my mom can’t think well enough, and I can’t walk them through the multiple remotes via phone. So I bought a Roku speaker bar that offered a one remote solution. The Roku is integrated into the speaker bar and it is able to control the tv. The remote also offers voice activation; you hold a button and speak into it like a microphone and it tries to do what you want. I tested it here before taking it over there and it is nearly indistinguishable from magic, though it still doesn’t work with Alexa. We made another trip over there and set it up.
While going through the Roku channels again to set up this new device, I found a new thing called Locast which is like antenna style tv, and my dad is thrilled. He likes to just pick a channel and let it play in the background even when it is just infomercials.
While we were there we looked at the failed Echo Dot. It worked fine when I plugged it in. Who knows what they did to it? This “smart” stuff, it is cool, but not as resilient as “dumb” stuff. Or perhaps our expectations are higher? Some of both, I think.
Steve is feeling a bit under the weather. Like a sinus thing but we are all scared these days so he and I both went for COVID testing this morning. Unlike the swab test I had last summer, this one had you spit in a tiny test tube. It was drive up testing where no testing personnel have to get close to you. You register from home, get a QR code on your phone. Drive up and there is a scanner mounted on a post, and you hold your phone up to it. They hand the kit in through your car window using tongs. The kit has a tiny funnel you use to get your spit into the barcoded tube. You cap the tube, wipe it with an alcohol wipe and put it in a ziploc bag, which goes in a drop box. There is a second drop box for the trash. That’s it. They will text us our results within 48 hours.
