Hey Jane Jetson, where is Aunt Bea?

Is it asking too much to have modern technology with old fashion ease of service?

I am having a frustrating morning here in Knittyville. My eyelid is twitching, my bug bites are itching and some would say that I am about to start bitching. That isn't true though, I am merely expressing my concerns in a ladylike manner.

Our phone stopped working yesterday which led to a very nice repairman being at the house this morning. Sparing you the details, the phone is working this morning and he couldn't trace the problem, but it might be related to U-Verse. We didn't bundle our phone through U-Verse specifically because we wanted the phone separate. I am waiting for a U-Verse repair person now. And twitching.

I am not bashing U-Verse and AT&T, especially if they can isolate the problem and correct it. I just wish that I was sitting here waiting for another repair person because AT&T phone is different from AT&T U-Verse and person A isn't trained to handle B's service.

If you are old enough, you might remember calling "Ma Bell" and actually knowing the operator who took your repair call. "Hiya Jane, how are the kids? I'm at my neighbors calling to report my phone is out. Can you schedule Sam to come out and check my line?"

Calling for service on anything today, Jane is likely to be either a computer interpreting your spoken selection from their menu or someone far, far away where clipped English is her second language. I imagine it is as frustrating for Judy in Bangladesh to understand our accents and idioms as it is for us to figure out what she just said. If we're calling for service, we're already agitated that our gizmo isn't working and that Gizmo, Inc. no longer has branch offices in our state.

I want the conveniences that Jane Jetson showed us on those cartoons I grew up watching with the friendliness and service we saw in Mayberry (the Andy Griffith Show).

Now really, that isn't so much, is it? I am not an unreasonable person. When everything is working properly. And my eyelid isn't twitching. And it isn't too humid. Or too cold. And there are no black flies hovering around me.

While I twitch, itch and bitch express my concerns, perhaps you would like to ponder another question from Chat Pack:

Through the use of a time machine, you are traveling back to the year 1850. You may take with you one, and only one, product or invention from the modern era. What would you take with you to impress and awe our forebears?