He Said, “We Have a Problem.”

Ever have one of those days when almost everything sucks? That’s exactly the type of day I had. Technologies problems seem to be everywhere – from my mobile phone and toll-free phone number to my laptop computer.



My ISP called this morning to tell me that a technician would be coming over to re-install my IP settings after I lost them during a recent computer repair. It’s a computer still under warranty in the United States, so I had to send it back to the manufacturer because there’s no one in Paris authorized to fix it. But that’s a frustrating story for another day.



A couple of years ago, the thought of the ISP technician coming over to my office to fix my computer would have scared me to death. In fact it nearly did. I hadn't seen him since he came to upgrade my cable modem this summer.



On his first visit a couple of years back, he came to hook up the cable television system and Internet service in our apartment. I wanted to return to work after the move, but I didn’t want to spend so much money using a slow, dial-up service.



When the technician rang my door bell, I let him in. He said good morning and I spoke to him. Then I showed him where he could find my computer. The whole time he was talking to me, I had no idea what he was saying. He realized it, too when no matter what he said to me, all I could no was smile and nod my head yes!



He went on working – laying out cable and hooking up my laptop to the Ethernet cable. Then suddenly he stopped. I couldn’t make out what he was trying to tell me, but luckily my oldest daughter, Chloe, hadn’t started school yet. Thankfully, she understood him.



Chloe turned to me and said, “Mommy, he said ‘We have a problem.’” When the technician realized that my five year old was bilingual, he directed all of his questions to Chloe in hopes that she could interpret. Actually, she did a really good job.



She didn’t know this but the problem was that he had to determine how to configure my computer because everything was in English. As it turned out, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He just called into the office and the tech team was able to walk him through the installation.



Fast forward almost exactly two years later, and the same technician paid me a visit today, but this time things were a lot different. For example, I did understand him and the re-installation was easy.



I guess the point to all of this is that we worry way too much about little things. In the end even the craziest situations eventually work themselves out. So the laptop is up and running again – that’s good. Now, if I could only get that stupid voicemail on my mobile phone to work!