A Day In The Life - 7/30: The Phones Arrive

The gadgets finally arrive. I had to laugh because it seems that everyone was more anxious than I was for these things. Quentin just could not conceive that we had ordered them through the mail, which would take an estimated week to arrive, rather than driving to another location to pick them up immediately. I guess that is one of the blessings of getting older. Almost nothing is urgent any more except being ready for the next life.
So these boxes arrive. "Very shiny," says he. "Quite stylish," says she. And then, back into the box they go to await another day to get them activated . . . which means giving up the old clunker phone I have had for the past five years which, in its simplicity, did nothing but send and receive calls. No camera. No internet. No GPS Navigation. What it did have was a teeny-tiny screen which showed the time and a couple of symbols if someone had left you a call or a text message. (OK, it did do texting and a couple of really cheesy games, too.)
This phone will be fun, they said. You can do everything, said they. But don't do too many of those things or your battery will be dead, said he.
So, the solution for me is to keep my iPod 32 Touch for all of my music, photos, and PDA applications (notes, to-do lists, etc.) and games. Those things eat up the battery but if the iPod battery goes out I still get calls. I will use the Droid for phone functions and data functions, like GPS, email and internet lookups. And when I can eventually get connected to the Verizon site so I can download my pictures from the on-board camera, I can quit carrying around the little camera in my pocket all the time for these daily (almost-daily) photos.
This is not a small change and Gaye and I will be having lots of fun (and frustration) as we wander through the labyrinth of stuff that it can do and add all of the "cool" applications to make it more friendly and useful. And, now that we are back on the same phone system with most of the kids, we can again talk about what new applications they have found for the new excuse for a phone.