Have you ever noticed how domestic tasks tend to fall in the domain of one spouse or the other?

For example, I have very little to do with the electronics in our house.

There really is some upside. For example, I easily sail right past pushy sales reps in big box stores who try to run interference by asking, “Miss, do you have Direct TV?”

I bet they think I’m being cagey when I respond, “I have no clue. My husband handles all things electronic in our house.”

It’s true, he does. And he takes great joy in playing three card monte with the Cable, Satellite and Direct TV companies, so why should I spoil his fun?

Incidentally, those electronics that I have little to do with include the TV itself. We only have one TV in our house, and it’s probably a good thing. Frustration should never be multiplied geometrically.

When I was a kid, there were only so many things you could do with a TV, once you got it. You turned it on, you changed the channel or volume, you turned it off. Now, it’s more complicated than the Mars Rover. I’ve never figured out how my husband has all the components wired (or why we have so many components, for that matter). I asked him to write down instructions for me on how to use it. I never got past Chapter 17.

Occasionally, I experiment, just for the heck of it. In a game that feels like Russian Roulette, I sometimes find the correct remote out of the six that sit on the table next to his chair. Then, I sometimes stumble across the right one to turn on the separate sound bar. After pressing 47 buttons, if I’m lucky, I get to a screen where I have to decide whether what I want to watch is accessed through HDMI, PTSD, or our IRA.

Then, if by chance I do get to a screen that gives me all of the possible 547 options that include watching anything from TEDx to Fedex, I’m usually so exhausted I just want to take a nap.

When I can’t figure it out and eventually give up, I actually take quiet solace in remembering a conversation I had about eight years ago. I was speaking with an Amish woman in Penn Yan who was showing me the dozens of stunning quilts she’d designed over the winter.

“You see,” she said, “I’m really lucky not to have a TV. Look at all I get done!”

Hmmm…. Maybe I should take up quilting instead of TV hacking.

Written as Editor of BeyondtheNest.com and originally published in the May 3, 2018 issue of BeyondtheNest.com.