This set up has spoiled me. Being able to voice control my way through the house has turned me into Scotty from Star Trek IV. When I visit my parental units and have to actually touch switches? I feel like “oh, a manual switch. How quaint.”

I’m also convinced that my son’s first word is going to be “Alexa” because of how much Mrs. Crispy and I use the Amazon Echo devices.

Downsides? There is one distinct issue….

I don’t mow my own lawn. Allergies, general “out of shapeness” and the fact that, from an hourly standpoint, it’s less expensive for me to hire someone. Anyway, they were edging and accidentally clipped my cable line. Comcast took 3 days before they could come out and repair it. Three days with no internet or television.

It was hell.

On the bright side, I got a lot of painting done. On the down side, half my house stopped working. There are a bunch of lamps and lights that, at this point, can only be turned on via voice control. Considering that the longest internet outage I’ve had since I moved into this house was an hour and a half, I didn’t see a problem with that setup.

The wife disagrees with me now.

At this point, my options are to either re-work the automation (icky) or look for a backup/wireless internet service. Considering how many billable hours I lost over those three days, the internet thing seems to be a great idea.