For several of this summer's projects we have utilized "instructions." By "instructions" we mean, "instructions." You know, a step by step description of how to install and utilize a purchase.
I have followed instructions all of my life. As a boy I made model cars and airplanes. I followed the instructions. In my home in Stillwater, Oklahoma, my bedroom was a ceiling of fighter planes shooting at each other and "flak" exploding. I hung all of my model airplanes, and balls of cotton, from string. In the dawn hours, when I couldn't see the strings holding the models to the ceiling, the whole ceiling was alive with a huge battle. I loved it.
Over time, however, the art of creating good instructions has disappeared. When you buy a computer these days you get practically nothing. It is one reason why us older people have such difficulty with technology. We are used to well designed instruction manuals.
About a month ago I purchased a $99 item that would, remotely, turn my router on and off. It was a way of rebooting the router when we are traveling. The instructions were laughably bad. Two parts of them were screen shots that were so small that they were impossible to even make out.
I called customer service, and the very effective and friendly customer service representative spent TWO HOURS walking me through the installation. Basically all he did was create a usable instruction manual. The company lost serious dollars on that transaction. Serious dollars that a usable instruction manual would have solved.
If I had a product that required an instruction manual, I would put one together, and then try it out on people who had no experience with the product. In other words, I would test it out first. That does not seem to be happening any longer.
We made two home improvements this weekend. One was to assemble and install a new ceiling fan. The old one still worked, but no longer fit the new interior of our home.
....and the instruction manual was terrible. The worst part was that there was a significant step that was nowhere in the manual. This was discovered after I had already installed the most difficult part of the fan. I had to completely start at the beginning, after I figured out what I needed to do.
The instruction manual was for all of the types of ceiling fans made for this company, even though each fan is a bit different. I discovered, by trial and error, that there were packing materials within the fan that had to be removed. Nowhere in the instructions was there anything about this.
Somebody could create a serious money-making company these days entitled: "Instruction Manuals for YOU!"
Anyway, here I am installing the fan. You will notice that I am wearing a bicycle helmet. Falls from ladders are serious business, and the main damage is done to the brain. So, when I am on a ladder more than a few feet and working at any kind of an awkward angle I wear the helmet. And Vicky stands below me holding the ladder and warning me of any obstacles.
The old, 1980s ceiling fan:
Me installing the new one:
The next ceiling project was to remove the fixture over the kitchen sink and install it in the great room. The reason for this is to give more light to where we play ping pong. At that place in the ceiling, when I bought the property, was a god-awful dining room fixture that I immediately removed and tossed.
But there was still power there. We have a new kitchen fixture on order that will replace the one we moved from there.
Our home is a little more to our liking now.
Home projects would be so much simpler with well-designed instruction manuals for the products we purchased. But, like 8-tracks, they seem to be a thing of the past.
We are sounding like old people, aren't we? We are kind of the people equivalent of 8-tracks. Sigh.
addendum: The rest of the new light fixtures we installed a few days later.
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