My grandma has been around for a few years now, and we adore her. While she is 90 years old, she is still alert and vibrant. She loves spending time with her grandkids, telling stories of her early life as a girl. She met my granddaddy at 16, and the two got married by 20 and were together for over 50 years until my grandpa passed on, leaving her behind. She grew lonely until my parents decided to take her to live in our house, where I get to enjoy most of her storytelling. One time she went on about how lucky we were that technology has made everything easier for us. She referred to the automated heating and cooling unit sometime back when I adjusted the thermostat without moving away from my seat. All I needed was to press a few buttons on my phone, and we were good to go. This took her down memory lane as she jokingly teased us about how automation has made us lazy. She remembers her days when the thermostat would need a bit of personal attention to work every time it broke down. What’s more, her parents were not very rich and could not afford to call an HVAC professional every time the unit had an issue. It was already a miracle that they could afford to have some heating and cooling unit. This meant that my grandma and her siblings had to learn the hard way and become experts at troubleshooting the system. They became so good that they managed to fix common issues such as leaking ducts, clogging filters that caused stuffy air, and cranked out the thermostat. While their thermostats were outdated, they had to learn to make do with them.