{"id":103096,"date":"2024-09-18T09:10:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T13:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=103096"},"modified":"2024-09-18T09:10:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T13:10:50","slug":"old-coot-cant-handle-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/09\/18\/old-coot-cant-handle-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Coot can\u2019t handle it!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Merlin Lessler —<\/span><\/p>\n

I first aired this complaint in 2011. I\u2019m still struggling with the issue – the shower and sink, water control joystick. A single handle controls temperature and flow rate and I can never get it to do what I want. <\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how long these things have been around. Probably decades. I avoided them like the plague, but they\u2019re all over the place now. I wonder why. What was so bad about a separate cold and hot water knob? A set up where you had perfect temperature control. If the flow was a little on the hot side, you made a minor adjustment to either knob, that was it. You could even do it with your toe when the bath water started to cool down. <\/span><\/p>\n

When I try this with a joystick, the temperature shoots all over the place. When I want the water to be a tiny bit hotter I overshoot and threaten to scald myself. When I go the other way I get a blast from the Arctic that sends my heart into atrial fibrillation. I\u2019m capable of getting all hot or all cold, but the delicate balance of lukewarm or semi-hot eludes me. I know I just need to push it a slight bit, a right-ish or left-ish maneuver, but the \u201cish\u201d part gets me every time. <\/span><\/p>\n

It reminds me of when I was 14 and driving my father\u2019s car back and forth in the driveway, never sure what gear I would get when I moved the shift lever. Every once in a while I ran it around the block because I couldn\u2019t find reverse. At least that\u2019s what I told my dad when he caught me out in the street without a driver\u2019s license. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with joysticks. I end up \u201cgoing around the block.\u201d I\u2019m starting to get really concerned. These controls are all over the place, not just in sinks and showers. <\/span><\/p>\n

The kids that grew up playing video games are now old enough to be making design decisions for many products. They have put joysticks on tractors, riding lawn mowers and a whole slew of devices. The steering wheel is going the way of the dinosaur, being phased out, just like the hot and cold-water knobs in sinks and showers. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll really be sunk if I don\u2019t get the \u201cish\u201d part down pat before they put them in cars! I\u2019ll end up like the Chevrolet Corvair that Ralph Nader claimed was unsafe at any speed. That\u2019s what I\u2019ll be!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Comments? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Merlin Lessler — I first aired this complaint in 2011. I\u2019m still struggling with the issue – the shower and sink, water control joystick….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nOld Coot can\u2019t handle it! - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/09\/18\/old-coot-cant-handle-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Old Coot can\u2019t handle it! - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Merlin Lessler — I first aired this complaint in 2011. 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