Fear the Crab

I helped my dad figure out some of the light switches in his new house.  Apparently between the design documentation and actual implementation, some of the wiring got switched around.  The documentation itself isn’t very thorough, either; some switches simply have “N/A” when they obviously do something.

One of the strange things about the light switches is that, while all are of the “rocker” variety, some act as toggles and others act as dimmers.  Again, without the documentation, it is not very intuitive to determine which switch is which.

Some rocker switches were split into two or four pieces, with each piece controlling a certain aspect of the lighting.  For example, one would turn on all lights in the area, whilst others would only turn on a specific section.  However, some of these “keypad” types only had one switch active, while the rest apparently did nothing.

We even tried holding down these inactive switches, thinking they might be dimmers, but we were still left in the dark.

The benefit of documenting the light switches properly is that we were able to identify possible alternatives for light configurations.  For example, there was one switch by the back door that turned on all the lights in the house; all of them!  Why it’s by the back door and not the front is a mystery, but after finding a seemingly unused switch by the front, we can ask the electricians to reroute functionality there, where it makes more sense.  I’m not an electrician, though, so I don’t know how difficult something like that would be.

* * *

There are plans in the works for my mom to have a voice-activated phone system.  This will give her the ability to make calls by saying something like, “Phone on!” as if she is a Wonder Twin.  She should also be able to answer the phone from her bed, so she doesn’t have to struggle to get the phone receiver or struggle to push buttons, nor do we have to construct some Frankenstein’s monster of a set-up around her bed.  The plans even call for a similar device to be hooked up to my mom’s wheelchair, giving her added mobility in her vocalizations.

Anyway, all this means is that I don’t have to worry so much that she’ll be left in peril should my dad suffer an accident.  Of course, until such plans are actually put into place, there’s a significant risk.  I know I’ll feel better when this system is up and running.