Meet the
Grandparents
Its 4:00 am, and from the other side of the house the daily routine begins. Grandpa
gets up to use the bathroom, and grandma shouts, "While youre up, you old bag
of bones, get me a drink of water."
Grandpa yells back, "What did you say?"
"Turn on your hearing aid!" grandma yells back.
Then grandpa adjusts the dial to his hearing aide, and replies, "What
do you want?"
"The same thing I want every morning!" grandma hollers back.
"A glass of water."
And this happens every day in Janet Burns home. Janets
grandparents live in a "Mother-In-Law" apartment in the back of Janets
house, and Janet keeps an eye on them as they move through the twilight years of their
life. And she takes good care of them.
As grandpa shuffles out of the room, an ActiveHome motion sensor activates a macro that turns
on the lights from their bedroom to the bathroom, and then into the kitchen. Janet also
has heat strips on the tile floor in the bathroom, and as grandpa passes another motion
sensor, that sets off another macro telling ActiveHome to start heating the strips so
that nobodys footsies get cold.
"Once grandpa finishes his raid on my daughters cookies,"
Janet says, "followed by a glass of milk, he pours grandma a glass of water, takes a
whiff of the fresh bread baking in the bread maker (also initiated by an ActiveHome macro)
and shuffles back to the apartment.
From there, ActiveHome begins readying the rest of the house for the day
to come, using the ActiveHome Start-Up macro. The coach lights by the mailbox go on so the
paper carrier can find the box, the pool pumps and heater power up so the water is ready
for Janets morning laps, the patio lights go on, and the coffee maker starts up,
filling the house with the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee. What a way to wake
up every day.
Janet says "I have rested well knowing that my grandparents have
found their way in the night without me worrying about them tripping or falling. I wake
up with a warm house, warm pool, and dry paper to read with that first cup of coffee.
Now if only ActiveHome could figure a way to get my daughter dressed and out the door in
time."
Well, Janet, that may be a few years down the road. But who knows, an
ActiveHome remote controlled robot cant be too far down the road.
Send comments or feedback on this article to xzone@x10.com
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