I once had to ask someone if they'd forgotten to plug their computer in. Which was a bit embarrassing. Particularly as I didn't think to suggest a clever way to avoid the shame - say, please unplug from the wall and switch off the plug socket to... erm [emergency excuse generator]... erm... re-polarise the plug socket...
To be fair, she knew how little she knew about computers - so just being polite solved the problem without any denials or grumpiness. She was checking her emails on her laptop every day, then turning it off. It was plugged in. To an extension lead to reach her dining table. The other end of which had been unplugged, in order to do the hooverying. Probably a week before, and the laptop had slowly drained its battery.
During the pandemic I went to the hospital for her, to pick up new batteries for her hearing aid. Not sure why I bothered though, given she never changed those either. Perhaps she just didn't believe in electricity?
On the subject of the excuse generator - I came across something this morning on the Mayak (Kyshtym) nuclear accident from the 50s. To cover up for all the radioactive dust in the air, after the explosion, the Soviet authorities told people that there was an unusually strong aurora borealis that was interacting with the atmosphere and causing it to turn yellow. The BOfH would have been proud.