Getting a Cell Phone

 

Brilliant orange slowly rose above the tree line and grew. This is a morning when I wish I had a view over the lake. The sunrise must have been spectacular. In too short a time, the colors faded from my view and the skies turned gray. One lone crow watched from a bare branch high in the oak tree as I dumped crappy macaroni and cheese leftovers and rotten hamburger. (I have got to get a good recipe for mac and cheese. Those box meals are horrendous.) By the time I got back in the house and took my coat off, two of the big blacks were on the ground happy with their easy breakfast. Seventeen blue jays descended in a hostile takeover. I flicked the kitty wand at the window to scare them.

The crows are very cautious and are easily frightened off. The blue jays are brazen. Perhaps it’s the feeling of safety in crowds. They swoop down from every direction and take over the yard.

After owning a cell phone for a month and not taking the courage to program it, I was determined to at least put in contact numbers. I knew that I couldn’t do much more with not having cell phone service at home. I went online with the computer to set up a Verizon wireless account. The site said that the info I was inputting did not match what they had on file. I did a Live Chat with someone to resolve the issue. They sent a temporary password to my cell phone. She said it couldn’t be e-mailed. To continue, I would have to access that password.

I was frustrated. “You are telling me that I have to get in my vehicle, drive until I get cell phone service, access the password number, come home and put it into the computer?” She said that would be the only way. I couldn’t believe it. After about an hour, I asked for a telephone number. She provided one saying they wouldn’t be able to help, either. I thanked her and signed off.

I dialed the phone number. By the time I went through all the automated prompts, I was frustrated beyond thinking clearly. This is why I hate these kinds of things and trying to do business nowadays. When I finally reached a real person, I lost control and with tears and anger, spent a minute or so venting.

Tina was wonderful. She was patient and kind. She let me rant and graciously accepted my apologies. We were able to get my account accessed. My monthly fee was to expire at 9 p.m. Talk about wasted money. We discussed plans and I got a little better understanding of the differences. The $80/month plan doesn’t really work for me because outside of this trip and a few shows during the summer, I won’t use the cell phone. She suggested that I wait until the day before I leave for my trip, then purchase one more month on the $80 plan to get me through the journey. Even though the time expired, I will still be able to keep the same phone number. After that, it might be better for me to purchase $100 which would carry for a year or until I use the minutes up. At least that would be better than $80/mo.

She also told me how to add contacts in the cell phone which I could do without having the cell phone service here at home. However, I still have to go somewhere to get access so I can get that password, set up voice mail, and download the Yelp app.

After we hung up, I did manage to add contacts on the cell phone. There was much misspelling and some going back and forth before I got the hang of it. Wow, those numbers and letters are small. No wonder text messages have a lot of spelling errors.