I don’t think I had to learn they were a damn impost, that seems to be one of the notions that came already installed with own personal software. My kids of course were the first to get them in our family and inevitably the original one was foisted upon me when my son upgraded for the first time! I didn’t take it with me but left it where it belonged on the Hallstand. With it I felt like a dog on a leash, always under the control of someone else but in my case someone who could remotely command my attention just by dialling their phone.
Then came the time my father was ill and I wanted to be within reach so the phone found it’s way into my pocket. One of the astonishing things I learnt after quite a lot of frustration was that to switch it on I had to use the same key that ends a conversation and incidentally switches it off. Nowhere in the book did it tell me that!
Now I have grandchildren in a “single parent situation” with their mum working full time & I want to be able to support her so the phone has actually allowed me a bit more freedom. I can go about my business knowing that if I’m really needed I can still be fetched. It does though leave me vulnerable to grandchildren with unrealistic ideas of how grandparents fill their days.
So far I’ve managed to shield all attempts to set me off on the “Smartphone” route, I think it’s like stepping into quicksand and the phone company is doing all the sucking!
Yesterday I made a new discovery about my mobile phone. Over the weekend suddenly I couldn’t send texts anymore, it would say “sending” for ages then politely ask if I’d like to retry. I have an identical phone sitting in a box (another story) so charged the battery and swapped the sim card but the result was the same. Repeated Google advice was to take it to the supplier.
The guy in the shop was very puzzled since I could still make calls. He went through all the settings etc, eventually asking if he could remove the battery but didn’t bother when I told him I’d already had the same result with another phone. Then, he checked my account online and discovered I only had 23c left on my Pre Paid account which wasn’t enough for a text message. I learnt that even when you have no money left for a few days you can still make phone calls just to cover the possibility that they might be emergency calls. An interesting little fact about that is, Deaf people who rely on text messages as a way of communicating would have no such access to emergency services.
My phone is now recharged and up and running again what a shame it’s not that easy to do the same for me!
Musings of a Retiring Person 