February 15

These light switches are in our living room. One turns on the front porch light; the other one controls the power to an outlet in our dining room, which is also the outlet that I use to charge our camera battery. The problem here is that I never can remember which switch does what.

Earlier today I noticed that my camera battery was dead. So I plugged it into the charger (the charger that is plugged into the outlet controlled by the light switch in the living room), and I left it there to charge for a while. Later tonight, when I wanted to take my picture for the day, I went to get my battery and found that it was still dead. I checked the light switches...one was on and one was off. The front porch light was on; the outlet power was not on. So I had to turn on the other switch and wait for my battery to charge (for real this time!). Now it is late and I don't have anything to take a picture of, except for this dumb light switch!

The worst part about this story is that this exact same thing has happened to me before--many times before, actually. If I was smart, I would just turn on both light switches, so I wouldn't have to guess which one did what. And if I was really smart, I would move my battery charger to an outlet that didn't have to be turned on with a switch. But I am not that smart, and I'm sure this will not be the last time I find myself in this situation.