The Problem
I am suffering the torture of Sisyphus. My boulder is a love of technology combined with just enough brain power to get it to work. Then, when it’s working, and I feel as though I am on top of the mountain, the technology quits, and I am back at the bottom of the hill struggling to get it restarted and having trouble remembering what I did the first time. Eventually, I succeed. Then, without explanation, once again it quits working, and the struggle resumes.
Several months ago, I bought a new amplifier/receiver. It is loaded with sophisticated bells and whistles. One of those bells is the ability to integrate control with Alexa. I followed the instructions. I opened apps. Logged into accounts. It worked. On command, I could tell Alexa to play music, the receiver would turn on, and music would play. A month or so later it just stopped. My command would go unexecuted. I pushed the boulder back up the hill. Opened apps. Logged into accounts. Once again, it worked. Last week after a firmware upgrade to the receiver, without warning, it stopped again. I am back at the bottom of the hill.
It feels as though I offended the gods. Sisyphus cheated death, but I have no idea what I did. Maybe it’s pride. It does make me feel good when I get something modern to work. But is that really a punishable offense? Or maybe I’m being told technology is for the young and I should back off. I don’t know. Right now, I’m frustrated. But I know I will research and talk to people and continue to work the problem, until I solve it. Again. Or not. Because, sometimes, failure really is an option, if you want to keep your sanity and you have the remote.