I hate our baby monitors. The dull roars they transmit will, I'm sure, drive me batty. We're using two monitors now, which is creating all kinds of wackiness. First, we can't have the two receivers too close to each other, lest they generate all kinds of horrifyingly loud interference. Most of the time, they sit on kitchen counters six feet apart. Second, Genevieve's newer transmitter apparently includes some sort of enslaving chip, as it will periodically begin broadcasting through both Gigi's receiver and Julia's, giving us an unnecessary stereo experience of all the noises Genevieve is making. Getting the two receivers to work appropriately entails a great deal of flicking the on-off and A/B channel switches - both of which are designed to foil my big, stupid fingers.
And then there's the nightly process of bringing Julia's transmitter upstairs with me when I go to bed. I can't just stick the thing in the outlet. First, I have to unplug both Genevieve's transmitter and the lamp, each of which cause feedback. Then I can plug in Julia's receiver and turn it on. If I'm lucky, I hear the hum of the white-noise machine in Julia's room, and I can go to bed. If I'm unlucky, something causes a buzz, and I have to carry the stupid receiver all around the darkened room, trying to find the sweet spot where there's no buzzing, whining, chirping, or other kind of electronic freakout.
Last night was a low point, though. Unplugging Julia's receiver, I stuck it in my pocket to head upstairs, but accidentally knocked the AC adapter plug out of its jack. I took the unit back out to plug the AC cord back in - only the jack itself had been dislodged from its mount and fallen into the body of the monitor. So at 12:04 a.m., I had to find a tiny-headed Phillips screwdriver, remove the screws holding the front and back halves of the body together, and then jimmy all the little circuit whatzits, electronic geegaws, and plastic thingamajobs into the right configuration. Not what I wanted to be doing at the witching hour. After ten minute's work, the reward was being able to hear that infernal hum.