A couple of months ago I posted a blog entry entitled “I Don’t Get It, I Don’t Get It.” I think this will continue to be a theme I will return to over and over again as more things come to mind. Today, for instance, as I was changing the sheets on the guest bed in anticipation of my brother and sister-in-law’s visit this weekend, I wondered for the umpteenth time why sheet manufacturers make the width of sheets so short and the length of sheets so long. I can tuck the bottom of the sheet so tightly into the foot of the bed that no amount of tossing and turning (or other things) will dislodge it. Yet if two people are sharing the bed and one of them sneezes, the other one will find himself or herself without even a square inch of the sheet to protect them from the night air. Have you ever had your husband or wife help you make the bed and participated in this scenario?:
“I need to pull the sheet a little more over on my side.”
“Well, I don’t have very much over here either.”
“You must have more than I do. Let me look.” (Walks over to the other side of the bed.) “Oh. I guess not.”
It doesn’t seem to matter how much you pay for your sheets, either. I don’t have longer sides on my most expensive sheets than I do on the ones I got at Target. What’s up with that? I don’t get it.
Another thing I don’t get: Why do instruction books not come with technology products? You have to go on the internet and look at the online version to find out how to use your new computer or iphone or whatever. You could download a copy of it, of course, but it’s usually 7000 pages or so. Have you ever tried to navigate the virtual pages of an online instruction book? Extremely difficult. Plus, even after you finally find the page you need and it walks you through the steps you must follow, you have to get off the page to do what it wants you to do, and by then you’ve forgotten the instructions. I need to be looking at them the entire time or have someone read them to me while I try to figure out what the heck I’m supposed to do.
And foget those Dummy books to solve the problem. Before they even go into print, they are outdated, such is the pace of technology. My husband bought me a brand new ipad2 at the Apple store, and what do you know? Today it prompted me to download a newer version of the operating system. Seriously? I haven’t even had the thing for five days!
So why are these technology companies so chintzy? You spend $800 for an ipad or $1800 for a Macbook, and Apple can’t even give you an instruction book? Hey, Apple—just for your information, my car came with an instruction book. Does that mean if you ever sell a computer that costs $25,000 you will finally give the buyer instructions on how to use it? Just asking.
Coming East 
Totally agree with you! And that’s so true about technology. Of course they expect you to go online. But if you don’t have the device to go online, how does that help?!
Everyone seems to agree with us, Leah, but the manufacturers!
I don’t get it either and I used to write the online manuals. At corporate meetings I would ask when we were going to consider printing actual paper manuals for our phones and programs in Plain English. The men in the group (I was usually the only woman) said, no one reads those things. Sigh!
That is so tinteresting, Katrina, that it was the men who said that. Actually, it makes sense, now that I think of it. Men are the ones who never ask for directions! LOL
I have that problem with blankets not being long enough so have taken to using two single blankets on the bed, one on each side but slightly overlapping and a larger blanket on top (I don’t like duvets).
There’s a warning picture on a fan heater I have that I was completely unable to figure out so one day I asked Bruce and he said it’s a picture of a teeshirt draped over the heater, with a line through it. Why a teeshirt, I wonder? Is that the most likely thing someone would drape over a heater? And an upside down teeshirt at that! There’s nothing in the instruction leaflet about it either. Crazy!
A tip for the short sheets problem. Make the bed with less on the side of the person who tugs the sheets most. That way the person on the other side will end up with the right amount of sheet during the night!
Thanks, Val. unfortunately, I’m the one who tugs the sheets!
Oh yeah, been there, done that for everything you addressed. Hubby and I even have been known to quarrel (just a bit) over who has more sheet draping down on their side of the bed when we make it together. And online instruction books??? Don’t get me started!!! I have to have a book, open at the page of steps I need or I can’t understand a darn thing!
I haven’t found anyone who disagrees, so why can’t we fix this, Mama?
Pet peeves in this house with de-struction books are the lack of them, the lack of content and oh, we’ve found that a lot of the time the foreign languages make more sense. I did find a solution for duvet covers so maybe it’d work for flat sheets – go up a size! We use a king size duvet on a double bed so it actually goes to the edges. The world is a very surreal place. Ah well. 🙂
Yes, Eye, I bought a king comforter and a king duvet cover for my queen size bed and it’s perfect. But the king top sheet is way, way too big for a queen bed. The other problem is that sheets are so much more economical when you buy them in sets. It’s a conspiracy!
When I received my Kindle Fire, I didn’t find a piece of paper showing how to activate it, had to go to amazon.com to look for it…
So you know my pain, Amy!
Ha! You made me laugh this morning, thank you! I’ve often wondered about the sheets thing too…
So, if everyone feels this way about sheets, why don’t the manufacturers respond? Maybe we should form Occupy Wamsutta?
“Plus, even after you finally find the page you need and it walks you through the steps you must follow, you have to get off the page to do what it wants you to do, and by then you’ve forgotten the instructions.”
This is exactly my problem. I go crazy flipping back and forth and I always get lost between web pages.
Do you think they are sitting back and laughing at us, Shary?
I am glad this will be a recurring theme for you–I love your observations! One of my don’t-get-it moments happened the other night–why on a night when I can sit a minute to enjoy something on TV is everything that is on silly or a rerun–I have more than 100 channels!
I agree, Patti! We watch very little television, so why is it that the one time I sit down to enjoy a show at night with my husband the series we choose is a rerun? That happens a lot during the holidays. I don’t think they want to waste new episodes when they figure people will be out shopping, etc.
I don’t get it, either. We have done the same thing with the sheets.
And I don’t find the online instructions all that helpful. It’s like, “I know THAT part, but…” and then it goes around in a loop. It’s just crazy, and it’s making us the same! lol
You would think, Patti, that they would want you to actually know how to use their product so you would want to buy it again.
I agree! My latest peeve is a fairly expensive vacuum cleaner. The instructions are in diagram-pictures that make little sense. I have had this vacuum for almost a year and still panic when I have to empty the basket, and have no idea where all the filters are that have to be cleaned! I don’t get it either. Great post Susan!
Yes, Dor, I don’t understand why they can’t give us a printed copy that’s understandable. Makes no sense.