Preparing for menopause is a great excuse to indulge in a little crankiness so, today, I take as my theme the subject of over-engineering and pointless innovation.
What exactly is over-engineering and how does it affect the menopausal woman? Let’s consider a couple of example:
- Flip out car keys.
What exactly is the point of this ‘innovation’? Is it to stop us poking ourselves in the eye with our car keys? I’ve been driving for 30 years and never had a car key accident so I don’t understand why my latest car key needs to fold up into the fob. Answers on a postcard please if I’m missing something really important here. - Microwave beeps. Dear Sanyo, How much happier I would be if you had devoted your attention to the cooking capabilities of the microwave and not worried so much about the beep. Who, in their right mind, thought any household would need a device that beeps incessantly until you open the door?
- Back to the car and the green light that tells me it’s time to change gear. Did it ever occur to them that lights flashing on the driver’s console might be a distraction and that the driver’s attention properly belongs on the road. Ditto flashing seat belt lights and/or alarms. If I choose not to wear my seat belt, breaking national law in the process, can’t you just accept that I’m an adult and have my reasons? Beeping at me may induce an accident or road rage. Just saying.
- Mops. Is it just me or has there been an explosion of innovation in the moposphere? From the swiffer to the interchangeable mophead and yet, dear reader, none of them seems adequate to the task of washing a floor. Seems to me the only way to make my tiles shine is to get down on my hands and knees and scrub like generations of women before me.
- Ironing. Steam irons with inbuilt tanks are still fundamentally irons. Why can’t the innovaters see that we need to move beyond hot triangular metal. A major breakthrough is called for. Stop the tweaking if you please.
If you’re thinking I’ve little to annoy me if this is my list of issues, you may well be right. But that’s the point, isn’t it. Menopause means it’s okay to be cranky.
