It's A Love Hate Relationship

With the new age of electronics comes the frustration of things not working.  Back in the OLD days of dinosaurs, your phone never quit unless you didn't pay the bill.  There were no long conversations on the wall phone that I couldn't reach unless I stood on a chair ... you said your piece and hung up because three other people on your party line might need THEIR phone.

Then came the hardy black phone that sat on the corner of Dad's desk.  Randolph 2-8624 was our number for as long as I can remember.  At least by this time we didn't have a party line.  It never broke down ... it ALWAYS worked, even when the kitty laid on the desk and it fell to the floor.  

There was no "mailbox" to leave messages unless you bought a phone recorder and attached it to the phone.  Remember the good old days??

Finally the era of bag phones came about.  Anyone remember those?  I had a big bag that sat on the console of my truck, plugged in to the cigarette lighter for power, which kept the phone charged.  Attached with a short cord, you didn't go further than the driver's seat.  Reception wasn't always the best, but if you needed to contact someone (like my lost truck driver delivering 25 tons of gravel to the wrong address) USUALLY you could reach them.

Eventually the bag phones morphed into the hand held, you-don't-need-to-keep-it-plugged-in phones, except all night long so it would charge up.  I'm pretty sure I still have several of these in my kitchen drawers.  We were uptown, right??  NOW you could leave messages.  It might have been frustrating with all the weird buttons to push, since every model and type of phone was different, but once you got it down, you were in like Flynn.  Mobile communication ... how cool was that!!  I was in LOVE with my phone!

Then we moved into the modern age, so to speak, of cell phones that can do everything!  Somewhere along the way they became extremely complicated, which means Frustrating with a capital F.  I've never had so much trouble with a phone in my life.  I think I'm going into the HATE mode.  

Never before did you have to UPDATE your phone.  The day I bought my phone, it needed to be updated.  I've actually had all the iPhones versions that have come out in the past because now they don't last worth a darn.  All these new electronic marvels have made me want to throw them in the trash on MANY occasions.  

Such was the case when I ran the updates for the APPS on my phone.  It told me Facebook wouldn't load because it was over 100 mb.  I needed to connect to WiFi.  I figured that was just AT&T's way of telling me not to use my Unlimited Plan ... use my Verizon WiFi instead.  Aha!!  AT&T can't fool me!!  I'm using THEIR data.  I progressed a little further into HATE.

After at least 20 tries, I was getting nowhere.  Now I couldn't use the app at all.  RATS!!  I was just getting recipes for my Instant Pot.  I moved past HATE into RANT!!

It's a good thing there wasn't much traffic as I headed North for dress shopping.  It happens there is an Apple store in the same mall.  I'll just stop in and use their WiFi.  It STILL didn't work, so I put in my name for some help.  The only problem they found was I had not updated my phone.  Of course not, because sometimes that ends up in an even bigger disaster and you lose EVERYTHING!!

At least if it did die, I was in a good place to get it fixed.  They updated my phone while I held my breath.  Still no Facebook.  He tried to delete the app and reinstall it.  It wouldn't delete.  He disappeared in the back and returned with a simple solution.  Here it is for those of you who have iPhones and can't get an app to load.  You actually have to LOG OUT of (in my case) iTunes, you know, the store where you buy those apps.  When you log in and it's operational, you STAY logged in forever, unless you have problems.  Once you  LOG OUT and log back in, everything resets itself and it works find.  Facebook reappeared and loaded in a flash.

It still took me 30 minutes to move from RANT back to HATE before finally returning to LIKE.  It's a love hate relationship I have with my phone.  Trouble is, if I didn't have it, I would feel totally cut off and disconnected from the world.  I've become so attached to my phone, I almost go into a state of panic if I even forget to take it to the grocery store.    I might miss an important call!!  Yeah, right!!

So it's back to embroidery, with my not-so-trusty phone at hand.  I've got twelve dinner trays to fill and six Instant Pot recipes to try out.  Here's hoping my cemetery doesn't need to expand past it's already wide borders.