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The Night the iPhone Saved Thanksgiving

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Iowa.

Back in Chicagoland, however, things were not going well.

I got a text from a good friend at about 3 PM on Thanksgiving. He had 30 of his and his wife's family at their house, and their oven had stopped working.

They had a half-cooked turkey, and both sets of in-laws.

"Can we use your oven?"

Yeah, sure! Of course. Just let me text you my security system code, my garage door opener code, and so on...

OR, I can take care of all of those things remotely!

When my friend told me he was in front of my house, I opened the ADT Pulse app, and shut off the security system.

I opened the MyQ app, and opened the garage door.

I even turned up the heat a bit for him with the Nest app.

He finished cooking their turkey, and let me know I could close up the house.

It took - literally - 2 minutes of my time.

But thanks to my slightly-wired-for-iOS home, I was able to accommodate Thanksgiving visitors, safely and securely, from 600 miles away.

And they LAUGHED when I said I needed a MyQ garage door opener!
That's the third time in a MONTH that I've used it.

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