It’s A Calling
I SPENT A HEALTHY PORTION OF YESTERDAY AFTERNOON being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of the Best Buy Electronics store.
I bought a new phone and now I am completely out of touch with the rest of the world and poorer by a few million dollars.
It really wasn’t in my plans for the day to be going phone shopping, but my old phone had other ideas. When I say my “Old Phone” I’m not just casually tossing around words. My phone that I had comfortably tucked in my little belt holster was a Samsung 4. That was a “New Phone” back sometime in the Carter Administration or thereabouts. I had that phone a loooong time and it was starting to show its age.
I’m not “New” either and I don’t work as smoothly as I used to so I wasn’t surprised when my phone began to get crotchety and forgetful. It had begun to arbitrarily decide to turn itself on and off without consulting with me. I began to get message screens telling me that some bit of software was crashing and there was nothing I could do about it. My phone had turned into a Geezer. It was time for me to saddle up and go shopping.
The best and almost the only place to go phone shopping in Terre haute (That’s French for “Please insert thirty-five cents.”) is the huge Best Buy Electronics store. That is the place to go if you want to buy cell phones, computers, and washing machines all in one place…and have convenient parking.
I didn’t want to buy a new phone, but I knew that I really needed to. I have become quite reliant on it for communications, research, shopping, and a bunch of other nonsense. It may be a telephone, but I probably don’t actually use it to place calls more than a dozen times a month. Who talks anymore?
Fortunately, the Best Buy wasn’t very busy when I went there. Going in over the Lunch Hour is a good idea. I was able to get someone to help me almost immediately. The salesperson who glommed on to me was younger than my phone. I learned that she was a part-time employee who is a Graduate Student at Indiana State University going for her Ph.D in English. At least we had a common language.
Just like going to my Doctor’s office my Salesperson asked me what was wrong with my phone. I ran down the list of problems. She looked it over, had it turn its screen and cough, and agreed with me that it was time to put my phone out to pasture. I knew that would be her verdict or she wouldn’t be much of a Salesperson.
She showed me a number of phones and explained what lovely bells and whistles they all had to make my life complete. I decided to stick with the same brand, Samsung, because I knew how they organized things.
My new phone is the Great-Great-Great-Great grandchild of my old phone. My little helper was able to transfer about 98% of the trash on the old phone onto my new phone. I’m glad because it would have taken me years to reconstruct it all.
After about an hour I galumphed out of the Best Buy carrying a plastic bag with a new phone and a debit card melted around the edges. I was poorer, but plugged in.
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to decide what ringtone I could tolerate and turning off all of the other annoying beeps and chirps that seemed to pop up at every action.
Hopefully this will be the last thingamabob I will have to buy this decade. I don’t like shopping for stuff like this. I like shopping for groceries, but cell phones are not edible.
Did I Make A Good Buy?
Down the Hall on Your Left 