My research to find a replacement took me to a dealer's website where each fob would cost almost $200! Being the cheapskate that I am, I searched further until I found where I could buy two for less than $30 total. My kinda price!
The website where I ordered the remotes said that instructions for programming the remotes would be in the package I received. When the package arrived, I found this complicated set of instructions:
Now I guess if I took the truck to a dealer or a specialist, they could hook up to the computer and program it to interact with my new remotes in minutes. But, did I mention I'm a cheapskate? I was determined to do it myself!
So I proceeded to the "privacy" of my carport where I began to open the door, close the door, open the door, close the door, etc. Now imagine trying to carry out this list of tasks while holding the instructions in one hand, carrying out the commands with the other, trying to hold the key, making sure the fobs were in close proximity when I needed them. Needless to say as I got about halfway through the process, I messed up and had to start over, not once but multiple times!
As I was doing this, I started thinking that I was the victim of a hoax! Surely someone was "punking me" as is said today or, I would look and see Allen Funt jump from behind a bush and say: "Smile, you're on Candid Camera!"
For the younger readers, Candid Camera was a television show (back in the dark ages) where an average person would be placed unknowingly in an embarrassing situation where a hidden camera would capture the action and, at the height of the embarrassment, Allen Funt would enter the scene and tell the person they were being secretly filmed, for which the audience expected the poor soul to be happy.
This show's popularity in its heyday came at a time when almost no one owned a movie camera and the cameras the average person owned didn't capture audio.
Fast forward to today, a time in which it is a rarity for a person not to have a video camera on them at all times. Almost every business in existence that is open to the public has a video surveillance system to monitor customers (and employees). Most major intersections in urban areas have several cameras, some even recording drivers failing to stop at red lights and issuing traffic citations via the mail.
Increasingly, private residences are protected by video security systems. In fact, my antics while programming my truck to accept the new key fobs was captured on at least two cameras of my neighbor's system.
Think you can get away from prying cameras by going to the country or to the woods? Hunters are prolific users of motion-activated video cameras to monitor game and to find the best hunting spots.
But those cameras pale into insignificance compared to the video cameras that the majority of the earth's population has on them at all times, the cell phone! The ubiquitous cell phone camera has become the tool for sharing precious moments, for recording our adventures and for those "gotcha" moments.
The cell phone camera has also brought out something of human nature that is disturbing: we will capture events, some of which are horrific, so that we can post them to some social media outlet where we hope the video will "go viral," instead of intervening or calling for help.
It also tells us about events we may not what to know about. I was once told of a video that had been posted on YouTube featuring a fight between two women at a Waffle House. I did a search for "women fighting in Waffle house." Try it yourself, Google returns 140,000 hits while YouTube returns 14,500! There are only about 2,100 Waffle Houses in the US!
In any video showing this type event posted, you can usually see three or four other witnesses videoing away and no one is trying to stop the fight or get help.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not against the use of video cameras either by fixed surveillance systems or by individuals and their phones. But, has their use changed our morals?
I use my phone all the time to photograph or video things. It's usually when I've been sent to the grocery store and I'm verifying I've chosen the right product!
Mary and I spend time almost every day in video calls with our children and grandkids, enjoying them although they may be far away. This time is very special to me.
Another caution we must heed is that we have lost some of our privacy. I read a statistic some twenty years ago that indicated those most American citizens were recorded on video an average of 100 times per day. I doubt that in 2016, we can go 100 minutes of our day without being recorded. I take the approach that if I'm in a public area anywhere, I have no privacy and shouldn't expect any.
So back to my original story. I finally got through the programming sequence only to find one of the remotes was flawed. Any button I pushed activated the truck's alarm system which caused me great frustration in getting it stopped! I returned that remote for a replacement which may never get linked to my truck as I'm not sure i can go through that process again!
If you decide to search the web for videos of people doing embarrassing stuff and you see me, I'm just programming my truck, honest!
