technology | WEGGIEBOY'S BLOG by Doug Thomas

There is a convenience involved in those automated systems where you punch this or that sequence of keys to complete your walk through doing business with a governmental agency or business when they are closed. There also is a hell on earth if you are doing it on a “smart” phone with a keypad that disappears between questions and you can’t figure out how to bring it up again!

I ordered two prescriptions today using my new “smart” phone. I’m afraid I lost a lot of patience in the process. I’m afraid I said some very colorful words. I’m afraid I came close to tossing the “smart” phone against the wall, then I barely came to my senses, realized it is very expensive to lose one’s temper that way….

Eventually (I think) I got an option to leave my voice message. So I read the information off the pill bottles and hope I left sufficient other information with them to get my prescriptions.

Poor Dougy! He thought I was yelling at him. Poor kitty.

I guess the brilliant bunnies who create these “smart” phones are too young to have to deal with needing a locked-on keypad to deal with ordering pills or contacting the Department of Human Resources to wade through their automated systems to get to the service option you need…after you select English over Spanish, to hear what those options are! In time, they will know what it’s like to lose the digital keypad and not be able to bring it back up in time to satisfy the automated voice that there is a person on the other end needing something!

Though it is fun being able to use my new phone to get the use of the phone option in my car’s infotainment center, I really need that stupid phone, the one with the real keypad to deal with the vicissitudes of age – prescriptions, bureaucracies, insurance companies. As far as those places are concerned, automated systems are cost effective, convenient, and reduce their labor costs. They also cause seniors hell on earth unless they have a stupid phone with a real keyboard

My new Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen can be used as a phone, this being the 21st Century. Of course, to make use of that capability, you first have to have a phone with Bluetooth (whatever the hell that is). Well, I bought one today so I can maximize the capabilities of the new car. Besides, it might be helpful at some point to have a phone in the car if I forget the new smart phone. (My head swims thinking about this stuff!)

After I finally got the car to recognize the phone, I had to try it out. “Call Chris,” I thought. The last time he called me, I was on the way to dialysis, or should have been. (The clock I was watching failed to update when Daylight Savings Time came around. I guess it isn’t new enough to pick up the signal or the old place that sent the signal no longer does it. At any rate, I was one hour late for dialysis, not a good place to be!)

So I pulled up his number after a struggle to figure out how to bring up the “page” of icons that lead me to a Wonderful World of 21st Century Telephony, where phones do everything, maybe even work as “voice communicator tools”, that is “telephones“. Hey! I found it! I even found it after a struggle on the screen in my car. Wow! Choices! Do I call him using the phone or do I call him using the car?

Seemed good that I try the car first. That was the exotic way to call, and, frankly, I was starting to get a techno-guy rush!

Chris answers. “Hello? Hello?” I heard him, but nothing I did would let him hear my end of the conversation. I fumbled with both phone and car. Chris knew it was me – caller ID – but clearly was more and more frustrated that it was dead on his end. (“What the heck is he doing up there?!” I heard his thoughts!) I gave up after a few attempts to connect and be heard on the car, then tried the phone. He heard me finally…for a short while! New phone, minimal charge? I hadn’t been home to get a proper charge on it yet. You know, I wanted to get my car to make friends with the phone so I could use my car to phone people. (Gad, we westerners are spoiled! There are people starving as I type, and I’m fussing about turning a car into a mobile phone…!)

Finally, I came in, unpacked the charging cord, plugged in the phone, and sent Chris a quick e-mail:

Just to end your concerns I’ve been abducted by aliens or finally cracked under the intense, merciless Nebraska sun, I was trying to connect my new smart phone to my car.

I got everything right (finally), but don’t know what is wrong with the audio. I heard you loud and clear. It may be that the phone doesn’t have a full charge on it yet or that I have to do something simple to get the car to accept my voice back to you (ball peen hammer, maybe?).

Anyway, I have the capability to use my car as a phone now, short of that one glitch. I will read up on the phone and car manuals to see where I went wrong.

Before long, I hope, I will have a nice car-to-car talk with you! (Andy’s on my computer giving me that “I doubt you’ll figure it out, fool!” look I sometimes get from him. That cat is too damn smart! LOL!

Doug. (HELP!)

Hey! I also took my first photo with my new phone. It was Andy. Of course, now I have to figure out how to send it to my computer! I guess that is possible. I just don’t know how. I guess I’ll have to upload an old photo so you get a cat dose today.

Stop laughing at me, Andy!

Dougy's exhausted from all these decisions! Poor kitty!!

Now Dougy’s dissing me…!

You've seen this photo of Dougy. It's my all time favorite of him!

Dougy might have the answer after all!

Sorry about the lack of defined paragraphs at the top. WordPress is giving me hell today. There are, in fact, TWO spaces between paragraphs! Then, inexplicityly, indicated spacing returns later in the post.