Isn't Technology Wonderful?

Or, Why I like my Jeep more than my computer.

    Recently, I was reminded why hi-tech isn't always what its made out to be. Don't get me wrong, my DVR is great, the computer-controlled thermostat has saved me a ton on energy costs, and my cell phone has helped me many times. But sometimes high-tech ain't what it's proponents would have you believe. Take as a case-in-point something that happened to me and the Monster recently. It was a nice, if not a bit humid Saturday morning, and I was on my home PC checking the Weather Channel Desktop Weather to see if the weather was going to be nice. According to WCDW, it showed absolutely no indication of any precipitation. "Great," I thought and promptly went out to configure the Monster into my favorite mode, top up, doors off, windows out. And then I went about by day's activities. Little did I know that the National Weather Service had detected a group of thunderstorms NNW of the home of the Green Bridge, and they were heading my way. In the meantime, I had washed my 3 vehicles, cut the grass, and did a bit of cleaning in my garage. When I was done, I returned to the inside of my nice cool home, (A/C is great, too!) and promptly fell asleep on the sofa for a "short nap". Well you can guess what happened next, the first of maybe 6 or 8 storms had started rolling through the area. A particularly loud bit of thunder awakened me, and I realized what was happening. I looked out of the front door, and the Monster was sitting in her normal spot on the street, but rain was entering through all of the openings I had put in her. Well, there was no use at this point in going out in a severe t-storm and buttoning her back up, so I waited. And waited, and waited. It took about 45 minutes for the storms to pass by, and when that had happened, I went out to check the inside of my Jeep. She had about an inch and a half of water standing on the floor in both front footwells, and about a half inch in the back. Of course this is the point that one of my neighbors came out to see me, and with a smirk on her face, asked if it had gotten wet. "Yeah," I told her, "but that's not really a problem." She looked at me and said, "what are ya going to do, turn it over and dump the water out?" This is the good part. I reached into my emergency bag, pulled out a flat bladed screwdriver, undid the snaps on the carpeting, popped the plugs in the floor of the Monster, and in about 10 seconds, all of the water had drained out. "All I have to do now is hang the carpets up for a couple of hours, and snap 'em back in, and I'll be good to go" I told the now stupider-looking neighbor. She says, "isn't your car ruined now?" "No, these are built this way so when you get mud in them, you can clean it out with a hose" I said. Without another word she walked back across the street shaking her head, and went back into her house.

The moral of this story? An over 60 year-old idea proves its worth once again. And this is why I like my jeep more than all of my hi-tech gadgets.