My Complaints are Caused by Me or a Computer

I have lots of complaints and most of them don’t last long and are not important. Some of them are a result of my age, some because I am forgetful, and some because I am just plain stupid. I will not bore you with all of them because you shouldn’t have to read that long, and you have your own complaints. But here are a few recent examples.

My wife and I traveled to Amsterdam to see the tulips in bloom, and we stayed at a small quaint hotel. We were given the top floor of the four-story hotel with a very steep and narrow staircase with no elevator. There were exactly 64 steep steps and I had to stop halfway each time going up to catch my breath. I was annoyed and tired each time I walked up to my room. We need to stay in hotels with elevators!!

I booked a ticket from Atlanta to Amsterdam, and then a second ticket from Amsterdam to Berlin to see our family for Pesach. I tried to connect the two tickets, but the tickets were on two different airlines and apparently it didn’t work. At the airport in Berlin, as we began our trip back home, I was told our luggage would only go to Amsterdam. There was no use complaining to the computer, so we had to go to the Amsterdam baggage area, wait 45 minutes for our three pieces of luggage, schlep them through the terminal to present them again to the second airline. Then we had to go through security a second time and all the time I thought we might miss the connection to Atlanta. I tried to connect the tickets before we left Atlanta, but the computers didn’t do it. I should have booked the entire trip on a single ticket.

I was driving on I-285 and tried to get off the highway by crossing a small work area. My right tire hit something with a bang, and I knew the tire was going to go flat. Why can’t workmen keep the work area clean? I know I was too late getting off the highway and it was my fault, but couldn’t the workmen clean up better? Anyway, I made it to a car dealer, and they put a new tire on the car for several hundred dollars that I didn’t have to spend. The only one to complain to is ME!

Yesterday, the TV was not working, and the system said I might need a new receiver. I tried to fix the TV by rebooting and nothing worked. I called AT&T, and the computer asked me to tell it my problem. When the computer didn’t understand what I said, it hung up. I called again and after a second try I hung up frustrated. After a third try, I was sent to a person who would only discuss my situation by written text. Finally, I was told what to do and it worked, but it took well over several hours before my TV was operating. It took too long, and I had no one to talk to except another computer!

We get too much mail that we didn’t ask for and usually toss most of it into the garbage. Much of the mail asks for tzedakah or tries to sell us something we do not need. We went on a cruise and now we get brochure after brochure presenting where we can go anywhere in the world. The brochures keep coming, but we’re not interested. There is no way to stop them. Computers have my name and keep sending stuff.

A computer gave me a list of the top 100 great American novels written in the last 100 years. I went to a used bookstore and bought 10 of them. I have tried to read three of them and couldn’t finish any of them. They are too artsy, too flowery, too long, and the stories are not that interesting. I wanted to read what others have decided are novels that are great, but these novels just didn’t cut it for me. Here are the ones I could not finish: “On The Road,” by Jack Kerouac, “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, and “All The King’s Men,” by Robert Penn Warren. It must be me. I spent a long time trying to enjoy reading them, didn’t finish any of them and gained nothing except to follow my own taste.

Bottom Line: If you have complaints, it will be mostly to a computer, and perhaps they’re mostly your own doing. Just keep moving on and smile.