Getting that back up phone to work was a good idea.
9:45 AM: “We’re in Waco.”
10:55 AM: “Were almost in Austin.”
11:15 AM: “Just dropped your Mom off at her meeting.”
Pa Wetzel and I had some breakfast at the Caffeine Dealer. Then he took a quick nap on the futon here, then Ma Wetzel called, and we motored off in his super-sexy Toyota Prius Ultra Low Emissions vehicle.
There was one tense moment. Ma Wetzel insisted that this was a State Occasion, and as such, it warranted me “dressing up.” Long pants. Shoes, well, boots, really. And shirt. Something with color and little more formal than just a trademark Hawaiian shirt.
Astrologically, it’s a moot point. But knowing what I know, about human nature, about parents, about the situation, it was easier for me to sweat like a stuck pig in nice clothes rather than listen to the endless bitching about my attire.
At one point, we were squired around the SWT (now called Southwest Texas State University) Geography Department by a grad assistant who was dressed just like I should’ve been.
Ceremony. Press the flesh. Fancy dinner. Catch a lift back to Austin with a head of some department. Talk about geography.
Their computer lab was pretty amazing. Lots of computational horsepower for rendering maps and Land Sat photos, I guess.
Fascinating staff and professors. Two or three of the guys were chairs, which means, the conversation was actually erudite and intellectual. Heady stuff. Makes me want to do something like go back to school.
There was driving and then there was rain, and then at one point, there was driving rain. But no one complained too much. I’m loving the spring-like feeling in the middle of the hot summer. Bet it won’t last. Sure enough, the rain clouds when I went to bed? They’re all gone now. Crystal clear blue sky.
Durn phones.
I turned my cell phone off when I boarded the plane for El Paso, last Saturday. When I switched it back on in El Paso, the phone didn’t work. To be a little more precise, the service didn’t work, the phone worked just fine.
I spent a weekend without cell service, no problem. Mailed them a check, last week? Sometime. Who cares, right?
So I got around to calling up the “customer care” number, from the landline, to see what the deal was. No luck. “Must be on your end.”
So, the next night, when the phone still turned on, cycled up, powered up and did everything but dial out, I called the “customer care” line again. Billing – account is current – transferred me to tech support.
We went through the motions, and I suggested it was probably a One Dee Ten Tee problem.
“Oh you know about that?”
“Yeah, I’m sure I’m just doing something wrong here….”
I punched buttons, turned it off and on, waited, they did something, I did something, nothing worked.
While waiting on the tech to work his magic, I asked about his best stupid call.
“Man, I got this one guy, he wanted to know how come his phone wouldn’t ring when it was turned off.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I had him repeat the problem three times. I just couldn’t understand.”
My phone service still doesn’t work, but that’s refreshing, in a way, no more annoying calls, “Hey, what are you doing right now?”
I finally had that sudden flash of insight, after a third or fourth call to resolve the problem. I popped the cell phone open, pulled out the chip thing, popped it into the old phone, and suddenly, it all worked again.
Problem solved, at least temporarily. The biggest problem? That backup phone? It’s not disposable.