This isn’t a post about the wrong text getting the wrong the person. It’s more about how I managed to botch simple messages.
The first message was quite simple: Freebird jam. The significance of this is that my wife hates Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and it was on the radio when I got in the car. Let’s leave aside all discussion of the merits of Lynyrd Skynyrd or guitar jams (sometimes called mindless guitar jams by my wife).
The text she received was Freebees jam. She texted back: What? Of course, she’s confused. I texted gibberish. From her perspective, she gets a text about free jam. What’s she supposed to think? Autocorrect strikes.
The last text was one I didn’t send. My wife needed me to pick up a prescription of vitamin D meds. Years ago, I was diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency, and my wife gave me crap about the doctor ordering the test (she felt it was useless) and then saying my deficiency was marginal after looking at the results. Well, the shoe landed on the other foot, when she was diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency.
I picked up the meds and was a button press away from sending this text: I got your v d meds.
Yeah, I read it before sending. And deleted it.
Technology advances, but that just allows the human controlling it to miscommunicate in new and wonderful ways.
🙂
I’m an author living in northern Virginia with a wife and a cat. In the late ’80s, I worked on the International Space Station project. I recently retired from managing a group of software engineers to focus on writing science fiction and speculative fiction. Learn more.
To be fair, I did admit to eating crow when I asked you to pick up my…uh…VD meds…