Starrs Aboard

I had a realization this morning.

Our house is set up as a “smart home.” Most of the lights are automated to come on and go off at certain times, which is wonderful… until you need to adjust the routine for a specific morning.

Then you have to pull out your phone and change it manually.

So this morning I thought, surely there has to be a way to just tell Siri to turn on the lights.

Nope.

Siri politely informed me that I don’t have a HomeKit set up.

Fine. I guess I’ll continue using the light switches like it’s 1995.

Except, wait…we can’t.

If you dare touch an actual light switch, you screw up the automation.

So there I was, phone in hand, turning on a light that was six feet away from me.

And that reminded me of Ed.

Lying in bed one night while we were camping, adjusting the thermostat on his phone when he was literally six feet away from the wall unit.

And I realized…

The “smart camper” has already begun.

It actually started with BlueFire.

Ed installed BlueFire so he could monitor the Country Coach’s gauges and all kinds of information while we’re driving. It’s pretty cool, actually.

Then the thermostat needed to be replaced.

Of course Ed bought one we could control from our phones.

And honestly, that made perfect sense. We could adjust the temperature in the coach while we were in the house without having to go outside.

Very useful.

It just turns out it’s also useful when the thermostat is six feet away and you don’t feel like getting out of bed.

We also have Necto, another app that monitors the temperature inside the coach and alerts us if it gets too hot, something we use specifically to keep Charlie and Barkley safe when we’re away. More on that one later because it deserves a post of its own.

But all this smart technology got me wondering…

How long before the entire RV is controlled from our phones?

The lights?

The generator?

Tank levels?

Batteries?

Awnings?

Locks?

And then I had what may have been either a brilliant idea…or a terrible one.

THE SHADES.

We have ten shades in Starrs Aboard.

Every night, we walk around and pull down ten shades.

Every morning, we walk around and put up ten shades.

That’s twenty shade operations every single day.

Why are we living like this?

Surely there is a button for this.

Better yet, surely there is an app.

I have not mentioned this to Ed yet because I know exactly what will happen.

I’ll casually mention motorized shades.

He’ll get very quiet.

And somewhere deep inside his brain, a new project will be born.

Three days later I’ll notice he’s spent four hours on his phone and has seventeen browser tabs open comparing motors, switches, wiring diagrams and something called a “smart shade controller.”

This already sounds expensive, and we need to start thinking retirement budget.

So perhaps I’ll keep my brilliant idea to myself.

For now.

Although the next time we’re sleeping in Starrs Aboard, when I’m pulling down shade number eight…

I may reconsider.