Call me. Or, wait. Um... Hello?

We've now had the new smart phones for a few weeks, and I am going to give it a solid 8 out of 10.  I reserve two points because you have to either look online for instruction, or call or go into the place we bought it at to get information.  No paper books that explain why it does what it does.  Also, a minus point because I can't seem to convince it not to make phone calls when I am trying to put a number in my address book... Fortune would have it, most of the folks I have dialed by accident seem to have had the same problem, and laugh it off.

I keep thinking about phones... My Dad worked for the local telephone company, and so we had several phones in the house.  We even had the old style crank phones, to call to the barn.  One of my friends walked around the house once, just counting phones.  I actually don't know how many we had, but Dad would often find two or three broken phones, and repair them to make one nice one.  Since they were 'junkers', we could keep the phone.  This lead to some really nice, but very unique phones.

I remember getting on the phone, and checking if anyone else was on.  Ah, yes, the good old party lines.  One jerk would leave the phone off hook each weekend, screwing up service for us.  Dad got permission from the company to disconnect them from the line, as he need to have phone service to get called out.  He received permission, and every Friday, he'd disconnect them.

They never noticed...

I recall needing to wait to call Grandma and Grandpa until after 5, as the rates were lower.  It seemed like SO many numbers to call them, since they were out of state...

I always thought it was cool, my Dad installed all the pay phones in the area, including the ones at my high school.  One of the guys told me he was going to knock down the phone booth when my Dad left.  Dad heard him, and I don't know exactly how he did it... I think the booth could have survived a 9.95 earthquake without even moving, when he finished.  I saw several football guys climb on top, then push on the roof, trying to displace it from the wall.  One fell, and did an interesting pommel horse style dismount, but no one ever did manage to pull it from the wall...

Later in high school, my parents let me stay home, when they went on a trip.  They'd told several family members and friends that I would be there, could they perhaps check on me?  This lead to me being late for school the first day they were gone, because I had all the family calling to make sure I was ready for school...

I got permission from my parents not to answer the phone the next day, which led to the family en masse calling Mom and Dad to let THEM know that I wasn't answering the phone.  Wherein, Mom had to explain that it was because I was GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL, and couldn't talk all morning.

Oh, right...

I had a really nice red phone when I was in college, a few of my friends made comments about whether it called the President...  Yes, I had unique friends.  My biggest thing was having an answering machine.  I really liked being able to come home and hear from family, or a friend reminding me about an event.  The only problem I had with it was one friend that had an extremely high voice.  The message would go something like,

BEEP, Hi this is So'nSo BEEP, next message BEEP, I just wanted to sayBEEP, next message, BEEP we are havingBEEP, and so on, for about 10 messages, until she could get the message to me.  I apologized, and she shrugged, she told me that it was what she had to do on almost every answering machine she'd dealt with.  I think the woman had a million times more patience than I will ever have.

I had a number that was one number off of the biggest greek house on campus.  It was not unusual to get phone calls at 2 AM asking if I would come get them.  If they were polite, often I'd call the greek house to go get them.  If they were jerks, I told them I would be right there, and hang up.  I wonder how many of the jerks were still waiting the next morning...

As time wore on, I learned about multi line phones, manage to entertain a company, where I didn't realize I'd hit the announcement button, until after the second or third "hello?"

The response by about 20 employees bellowing into the office was "HELLO, ALREADY!!"  Eeep.  Live and learn.

Dealing with voice mails, butt dialed numbers, and other sorts of modern phone maladies, has been ever useful for keeping grey cells functioning, if not patience.  With my new toy, I seem to have several things in my hands, a computer, a phone, a camera.  Hey, if I wait long enough, do you think I could get one that will make my cocoa in the morning?

I am only half joking, it seems like things I thought were so wow, are blaze' now.  I mean, I had a flip phone like Captain Kirk and Spock.  Jeez, now my phone is more like the on board computer!  Or even better, actually...

25th, and a Monkey Moment...

Yesterday was Husband and my 25th anniversary, and to celebrate...

We went gold panning.  Oddball, but Husband knew it was something I'd wanted to try for some time.

See my little green gold pan?  It looks TINY compared to a standard one!  But it worked fine.  And the little blue thing is a foldable stool that I sat on.  Crouching doesn't work when you have one knee...  The big container is Husband's stool, which doubled as a tub for carrying all the assorted tools.  

After a hike down the hill, where I once again found out I am out of shape.  (Unless you count round...)  We arrived at a little bend in the river, which is open to panning.  Set up our respective seats, and Husband pulled out a shovel for digging up... A big blob of rocky mud.  

Huh.  

Then he put it through a large strainer looking pan, and got it down to...  less rocky mud.  He then showed me how to 'float' the stuff I didn't want out, (I did 'cheat' and remove larger rocks with my fingers), until it did actually end up black sand, which is an indicator of potential gold.  

Note:  I said potential...  We panned for about 2 or 3 hours, but had no gold.  I wasn't disappointed, though, as I learned now what to do, and what to look for.  I also was out in the woods with Husband, we were chatting, and he showed me a few good fishing grubs in the water, I pointed out some tiny fry swimming around.  (I also made a terrible joke, that if we were in France, they would be French Fries... Yes, he groaned, but he knows that sort of nonsense is de rigueur for me...)  

We had a good time, and it was not too warm.  Well, okay, it was warmer than I would like, but I found if I had my feet in the water, I was quite comfortable...  Even though I was wearing a felt hat, and long sleeves, to keep from burning.  

I still wonder if I am part vampire sometimes, except that I don't like the taste of blood.  Hmm.  That would create a problem, yes?

Anywho, this is the spot where we panned, between the front big rock and the shrub.  

We then went home and changed shoes, as we both had soaked feet.  Then we had dinner and a movie, (well, pizza and a DVD, but hey, it's what we wanted), and just had a very nice, relaxed day.

And you've probably noticed that I haven't been blogging again?  A little of it is just that I have been on the go.  However we have also made some changes...

I have officially, really, made a BIG technology jump.  Husband decided after our continuing problems with Green Asterisk internet, that we are going to have Smart Phones.

(whimper...)

And, so we went to the first place to get it.  The darling sales clerk was so charming... "Oh, here's what you want, and we'll give you 12 GB of data, and-and-and-and..."

"Um, no, you see, we only really want call and maybe text, and RARELY we might use the computer portion, easy on the apps..."

After an expression that could have curdled milk into cheese in a nano second, "Excuse me, I have another customer here."  This went on for about 10 minutes or so, until we got royally pi**ed decided they didn't have what we wanted, and left.

We then went to the main office of the company Husband wanted to use, (the other was a satellite of the same company), and it could not have been more different.  The gent that helped us listened to what I used the computer and phone for, and Husband, to the tune of more than an hour or so of explanation on our end.  He suggested a much more reasonable phone/GB combo that was much more to our liking...  And gee, it wasn't the top end of everything, surprise surprise...  Thank you, Robert person at Verizon!

Ahem, you remember the scene where the monolith lands in Space Odyssey?  I think I am the third monkey on the right...

I have been on a learning curve with the new rig, some things haven't been too bad (texting makes sense, and is an advantage to send a quick note to someone, a lot like an email or post-it note), but some things are terrible.  I have been fighting apps.  I have fat thumbed an app on my computer, (Kindle).  This is fine, ON MY TABLET.  However, I don't want it on my phone.

But not only was it on my phone, the website said, Oh, why don't we put the smart phone as the default setting?  She won't mind... I told the phone, don't do that, stop.  Turns out "stop" only means, "stop this session", and will start up again the next session.  Which made my budget for GB go up much faster than I wanted. Snarl.  So, with a little help from Husband, we "disabled" that app, and I "disabled" the phone on the website, too.  Now, if I have worked it out correctly, unless I start it again, it is now somewhat invisible to the website, unless I turn it on again.

Otherwise, I will have to see Robert person, and beg for mercy...