As those of you have read this blog in the past know. I have become somewhat comfortable with using technology. But then, something happens making me shake my head and set me back Yes, as you can tell I had an issue with a piece of technology this week.
You see I was out in the woods with the dog and I lost my cell phone. I looked around and was unable to locate it, but “Alas” I said, ‘it’s an iPhone so I can use the phone tracker from my computer and it will lead me right to it.” Who says I’m not getting smarter?
I went inside, got onto the computer, went to the Apple site and looked up “Find My Phone”. I was on the way, except I needed to log into my Apple account first. Now you would think that wouldn’t be a problem. Well it was. You see I had my sign in information on my phone, the phone I lost out in the woods.
I can figure this out, I just need to look around the website for a trouble shooting section, which I found soon enough. All I had to do was to enter the serial number that is somewhere on the phone and…yes, that would be the same phone I lost. Let me go to plan B.
My co-worker and I would go into the woods (right behind our workplace) and I would have her call the phone and we would hear it. I knew the general area where I probably lost it. After calling my number well over fifty times, we couldn’t hear it. Hmmm, did I turn the ringer off when I went to that meeting?
Not about to give up, I drove home and was able to retrieve my Apple account information from my home computer. I then was able to log onto “Find My Phone” and I would be able to locate it that way. I would just need to go back to the other side of town. I pinged it and … nothing. I knew I should have made sure it was fully charged when I left the house in the morning.
I decided I might has well throw in the towel and drove to the Verizon store to order a new phone. I didn’t want to, especially since this one wasn’t very old (even though there have been at least five upgrades since I bought it). But they beat me.
Arriving at the Verizon store ant 5:01 PM, I found the doors were locked. Really? There was a QR or QC or QVC code (one of those squiggly things you can scan with your phone) telling me the hours the store was open. Since I don’t have a phone I stared at it for 35 minutes, but all I got was a headache and a picture of two octopus (octopi?) playing a game of Twister.
Being almost six PM now, I realized I had better call my wife and tell her what was going on. She does tend to worry about me, especially if she thinks I am out exploring in the woods. Normally she can track me by an app we use but, right, the phone is dead. Since there are no such things as pay phones around here any more, I would go down the street to our satellite office and call her from the phone there. How many of you remember phone numbers these days? Yup, neither do I including hers.
Well I would bite the bullet and go home where she would be worried sick about me. She probably called search and rescue by this time so it was probably going to be ugly. After trying to convince her this really happened and I didn’t have a girlfriend, I now realized I couldn’t do anything until the next day.
The next day started off on a much better note. Guessing the Verizon store would be open at 9:00 I drove there at 10:00 and requested a new phone. When they looked up my information, I learned that I actually had purchased the “Free Phone Replacement” plan and I would have my phone the next day. Two hundred and twenty nine dollars later my free replacement phone was ordered and being shipped overnight.
Sure enough the phone was waiting for me when I arrived home the next day. I took it out of the box and read the instructions on how to activate it. “This is what the directions said., “To activate your information put the new phone next to the old phone and use the app on the phone.” Well I know that wont work. Next. “If you have lost your phone, Sign in to your Apple account and go to iCloud”. Okay, now we are rolling. I have that information. I entered the info. “Enter your phone number.” Got it. “We have sent you a text with a confirmation number, please enter it now.”
You know what? I lived over forty years without a cell phone, who needs one now?
