combination VCR/DVD

(FROM THE VAUNTED “AIN’T TECHNOLOGY WONDERFUL” FILE..........)

Last night (Sunday, March 2, 2008) our fantabulous combination VCR/DVD finally taped the news.
As you all know, if an electronical device (like a TV or a DVD-player) has a remote, it ain’t actually off when it’s off.
It has to be on enough for the remote to turn it on.
The onliest way to get it completely off, and not burn down your house while away, is to pull the plug.
Both our TV and our DVD-player have remotes, so I pulled their plugs when we went to the mighty Curve or the great land of the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower.
I’ve done this about three times now, and each time I plugged them back in, the combination VCR/DVD failed to tape the news.
It seemed the combination VCR/DVD wanted me to “set it up,” like from first plug-in.
Seemed that if I did that, it would tape the news — and it hadn’t forgot my timer-sets.
We returned from the great land of the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower last Thursday, and I immediately “set up” the combination VCR/DVD after plug-in.
But it didn’t tape Friday, although it was on DVD, and won’t record unless it has an unprotected DVD to record onto. (I had my Cajon DVD in it.)
So I set it back to VCR, to wait until the next day — Saturday.
But it didn’t tape the news that day either.
No “on”-button, no “activate”-button; a mystery wrapped in a conundrum, and just hope for the best. At least our cellphones make some sense.
So I “set it up” again, and last night (the next day) it taped the news. —Why we’ll never know.

The “mighty Curve” (“Horseshoe Curve”), west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan.)

“Shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower” is where my wife’s 92-year-old mother lives, in a retirement community in “the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower” in De Land, Florida.

RE: “I had my Cajon DVD in it.........” —Cajon (“Ka-HONE”) Pass in Californy is the railroad pass the Santa Fe Railroad used to get out of the Los Angeles basin up into the high desert. Santa Fe is now merged with Burlington Northern Railroad as Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and a second railroad also uses the pass, Union Pacific (previously Southern Pacific, built by them in 1967). Interstate-15 to Las Vegas, NV also uses the pass. The pass breaches the San Gabriel mountains. —As a railfan, I have a DVD recording of trains in Cajon; I also have been there.