Shots Across the Bow

Let the games begin!I just bought my first PDA. When I placed the order on-line, a screen popped up touting a special offer for a free cell phone attachment. I had a cell phone several years ago, but got rid of it because I wasn't using it enough to justify the money. Now that I'm commuting an hour and a half each way, there have been several times when I wished I had one.

So I decided , "What the hell," and ordered the attachment, giving the information they needed for a credit check.

The next day, I got an e-mail from the vendor saying that my cell plan had been approved by the provider and an account was being prepared for me. Yesterday, my phone and PDA arrived. (Yes, UPS finally came through.) Today I call the cell phone provider. They've never heard of me, or the PDA phone I bought. Completely without clue were they. (I watched Empire Strikes Back last night. Can you tell?) After talking with four different people at the cell phone place, I called the PDA vendor, and asked them what was going on.
The nice guy I talked to was surprised that the cell phone folks had no clue what I was talking about, and he checked into it. Ten minutes later, he called me back, and said that the cell phone company had no record of my account.

I already knew that. I asked what they were going to do about it. He said I could sign up anywhere since I already had the phone. Sinc I had actually read the contract, I knew that if I didn't activate the phone, I was on the hook for $100 for a phone that wasn't hooked up to anything. I asked him about that and he went to get his supervisor.

So now, his boss is talking to the cell phone boss, they have my information again, and I've been assured that all will be taken care of. Of course, Jimmy Hoffa was 'taken care of' too. I don't think I want that.

In the meantime, I get to surf for good little applications for my new brain.
It's good that I got a new one, because the old one was getting a little rough. I was driving down a curvy road (an East Tennessee redundancy) one afternoon last spring, and on a particularly sharp curve, the day planner slid across the dash and out the window, over the drainage ditch, through the barbed wire fence, and landed in a pasture. Now pastures in East Tennessee almost always have cows on them, unless they have pigs or llamas on them. (Yes, llamas. They use them to pack supplies up to the lodge on Mt. LeConte, where wealthy people go to experience life like it was in the good old days. Or like it was yesterday on the south side of English mountain, but that's another story.) Anyway, while there are usually a lot of cows in each pasture, and they all eat constantly, its not like the ground is carpetted with what cows leave behind when they eat a lot. Rather than get too detailed, let's just say that the Gaelic "gang agley" was fairly freely translated on that day.

So now, I have a new brain, an interactive brain. One which will keep track of my busy social schedule (rotate tires, friday 9AM), allow me to keep up with my business expenses (3 Plastic Tarps and 2 bottles of corn oil. ) and to do lists (Move cars. Mow grass. Put cars back.) One which will remind me of things I'd rather forget, like dentist's appointments, and trips to the exorcist. (I'm sharing too much, aren't I?)

So far, I've put in four addresses using the little stylus, and I can already tell that is has got to go! I'll be permanently deformed if I use that thing for very long. Fortunately, I've found some inserts for the pens I've been turning and I'll replace this silly thing with a real pen.