Okay, this is it. I have GOT to get my act together!
This morning I overslept big time. Awoke at 7:30, about the time the Thursday ayem meeting was starting. Called the speaker to let him know I’d be a half-hour or forty minutes late — he wasn’t there yet, either. Ten minutes later, FLEW out the door and hit the road.
No. Make that “hit a wall of traffic making like a molasses tsunami.”
The fake cowboy DJ on the radio remarks that there’s an estimated 95-minute back-up — that would be an hour and a half, he helpfully translates — on the eastbound 101 at a downtown exit.
We sit through six signals at the intersection of eastbound Glendale and State Route 51. Evidently every eastbound commuter who’s heard this news has dodged off the I-17 (which merges with the 101 downtown and is capable coming to a dead standstill when any significant event occurs). They’re all headed across the surface streets to the other southbound freeway, which arrives downtown several miles to the east of the wreck site.
So it’s quarter after 8 by the time I reach Scottsdale. The program is over and people are sitting around chatting. The chiropractor has already fled for another meeting, but others are socializing, and that’s nice. Chat for awhile; then burn some more gas to get back home.
The assembled company is looking and feeling a little groggy. At 3:49 a.m., reports George the Elder, an Amber Alert went off and rousted EVERYONE out of the sack with a shrill squeal and a desperate-sounding announcement. Some woman’s ex-boyfriend called the cops and claimed she threatened to harm herself and her brats. She claims that is not so. The cops apparently doubt the accusation enough that they are not filing charges.
Whatever is true, the result was to jolt every cell phone owner in the city awake in the wee hours of the morning.
I’m thinking I may try again with the cell phones. So far I’ve really hated the android-type phones I’ve tried and deeply resent having to pay so goddamn much for something that a) I consider a nuisance; b) I can’t figure out how to work; and c) I hardly ever use and don’t want to use. However, it’s just so risky to be schlepping around the city without a phone when there are no pay phones left anywhere… My son has extracted 100 minutes a month with no contract for his iPhone with T-Mobile (whose service I loathed) for just $30 a month (plus the cost of the contraption). That’s annoying but not impossible. So if — and only if — I can persuade him to help me learn how to use it and help me get T-Mobile’s erratic billing practices as much under control as possible (they don’t bill you and then they cut off your service), maybe I’ll sign up for that. At least I know how to operate Apple’s hardware.
Lo and behold, it’s very easy to turn off the Amber Alerts on an iPhone. If and when I get this device, that will be the first order of business.
What an annoyance! As though in a city of 4.2 million people, I’m likely to spot some homeless woman’s three children at 4 in the morning! A homeless woman who lives halfway to Tucson…
Back at the Funny Farm at 9:30. Starved, of course: no time for breakfast, and I do not eat at The Good Egg (our meeting place), which like most chain restaurants serves processed foods poured out of boxes, bags, and cans. Still haven’t lost the two pounds I picked up on Monday at the IHOP.
And in the “still haven’t” department, it’s now 11:30 in the morning and I have not started on the client’s project, which I surely would like to get done today, so as to ship it off to him at the earliest. If I don’t quit writing this blog post soon, though, the possibility of reaching that little goal will be much diminished.
Met with him for almost two hours yesterday (imagine the number of hours that will be required to put all that content-heavy palaver on paper!). He arrived back from London with an airplane cold, thank you very much. By yesterday evening, it looked like I was coming down with it, in spite of my having driven straight to a store and purchased a package of sanitary wipes with which to scrub the hands, the computer, and the car’s steering wheel. But this morning I seem to have thrown it off.
What I have not thrown off, evidently, is stone laziness.
And so, to work. I suppose…
Have you tried Tracfone? I got an LG flip phone for emergencies last fall and I buy 60 minutes of airtime every 3 months. They also double your minutes. I love not having a contract and it has really come in handy for me.
I’ll look at it.
The trouble is, I can’t figure out how these flaming accursed gadgets WORK! This last one, an android from flaming accursed T-Mobile, had a keypad but it was so microscopic my fingers wouldn’t fit on the plastic foam key thingies (you’d need something like a darning needle or a Q-tip to operate it), and…oh gawd! At one point I had to ask a stranger how to dial a number on the damn thing. It was so embarrassing…I just never wanted to even SEE another goddamn cell phone again! I went back to my car and started to cry.
read the Planting our Pennies blog about Glyde (for a phone) and Ting for the service. http://www.plantingourpennies.com
I saw that!! We can blame PoP for the new bug in my bonnet to get a phone.
It doesn’t look like Ting is available here, but…as usual with things cell-phoneish…I can NOT figure it out. It may be that it’s available wherever there’s Sprint…but maybe not. Nowhere (that i can find) does it say this service is available in the Valley of the (We-Do-Mean) Sun.
I had an AT&T flip phone that cost about $30 to buy, and I purchased prepaid minutes, $25 for 250 minutes, that expired after 3 months. Basically, no contract, and ongoing cost of about $9 (after tax) per month.
I’d had “smartphone” envy for a while, but joked that I was afraid I was not smart enough to use one. Mostly, I just didn’t like the cost of what I basically saw as a fancy electronic toy. I bit the bullet and bought an iPhone about a month ago. Went out of town for a week, and came home to no land line phone service, and no internet connection. (The problem is going into its second week, and is a major annoyance.) So, I’m really, really glad I have the iPhone at the moment. With the iPhone, I can access the internet on my laptop. For a fee, of course. I still hate the cost, though. Really, really hate the cost.
Many of the road service places AAA and I would think others have some
easy to use [relatively] phones.
I have a Senior plan thru at&t. Currently, I pay $35.94 for a $29.99 plan. The phone was free with the plan. It is a phone that I upgraded from a flip phone. It does have some data possibility, but I don’t feel $100 + a month is worth it. So I use it just for calling home or on the road.
I do think having a phone for the road is a good thing and wish I could convince my husband to keep his work phone powered and with him. Oh well, what can you do with a wonderful Luddite?
I got my mother the Jitterbug that is advertised in AARP. Large buttons and easy to use and low monthly rate for a basic phone. She just needs a phone for possible emergencies on the road.
Some time ago I left AT&T and went with Virgin Mobil. I’m sold …but I just want a phone not a “miniature computer”. The phone I use now was a “cast-off” from DW…ie. ….a flip phone. Love it….durable…easy to use…coming up on 8 years old….and CHEAP. Load $20 every 90 days to my phone and I’m set…that’s $6.66/month. A couple of years back they offered me an incentive to add $60 all at once and my service would be good for the year…which I did and that worked well.