Well, I bought a new mobile phone: a Samsung Blackjack. It was a significant change I hadn’t planned to make.
I have been carrying a Palm Treo in various models for several years. It’s called a Smart Phone because it combines the features of a mobile telephone with a handheld PDA. The Treo I recently abandoned, or maybe I should say abandoned me, was my second model. The first one, I accidentally sent through the wash cycle in the pocket of my blue jeans and it refused to work any longer. The second Treo served me well for a year and a half until recently when the buttons stopped working. Even if I mashed them until I heard cracking noises, they wouldn’t respond. Since the phone had outlived its warranty I tried to fix it myself, ordering a little button kit online and installing it with a magnifying glass and miniature screwdriver. It worked for a week, and then I was back to mashing and cracking. The only way I could make a call was to pull the battery out to reboot the phone, and then use the touchscreen, quickly, before it went dark again. But I couldn’t get to my calendar and other favorite programs like Excel and Freecell and my Bible software. I could live without a phone, but I needed my calendar (if I missed an important appointment with any of you, I am sorry; call me to reschedule).
It occurred to me that maybe God decided I was wasting too much time playing Freecell on my Treo and since I had better things to do He simply zapped the buttons on my phone to free me from its clutches, the Freecell monkey on my back. Maybe that’s it?
So I went to the phone store to check on a new Treo, which would mean a switch from the Palm operating system that I was used to, to Windows Mobile, a change I had prepared myself to make. But my two-year contract hadn’t expired and I wasn’t ready for the price they quoted; I choked on the cost and stumbled out the door.
After a couple of days of recovery I went back and bought a Samsung Blackjack, also a Smart Phone. I think I will like it, even though it doesn’t have a touchscreen – a feature I will miss. But it cost half as much as a new Treo and I thought it was worth restructuring this small portion of my life to save money so my loving wife Cyndi can finally buy a new car and all that. Let it be known I am willing to do my part.
And I will say that while “Treo� sounds cool and fun and hip, even vaguely musical, “Blackjack� sounds, well, like the sort of phone the Dread Pirate Roberts would carry, or Captain Jack Sparrow. Just knowing I have a Blackjack in my back pocket makes me more alert for adventure.
It won’t be a simple transition for me. My old Treo had more features that I loved, but without buttons, my Treo turned itself from a phone into a paperweight with no features at all. My Blackjack has a lot of cool features, too, and I will start using them as soon as the battery is charged completely; but it already has the advantage of being more blackjacky, and that is not a small thing.
I will say that I won’t be wearing my Blackjack in a holster on my belt. I once wore a slide rule in a case on my belt, back in my cooler teenaged years, and I figure I’ve done my time regarding belt accessories. But I am so inspired I may have to start wearing a sword, no, a cutlass. Hoist the Jolly Roger and all that.
If you think I am overplaying the danger side of owning a phone, and I even wondered that myself, I will point out this was the only phone I’ve ever owned that came with a twelve-page booklet titled “Health and Safety Information.� My phone came with safety instructions! Just call me Johnny Danger, the Blackjacker.
I am looking forward to this next phase of my life. Only time, and heavy use of my new phone, will tell me if I like it as much as my old pre-broken Treo. But just owning a Blackjack already makes me feel wilder. I can stand up and buckle my swashes with Jack and Roberts and all the rest.
I told Cyndi that I finally got a new phone, she could stop worrying about me, and I showed her my Blackjack. I said, “Just call me Captain Jack.�
She smiled and kissed me and said, “You’ve always been a pirate.�
Well, shiver me timbers.
Hey Captain Jack - how about a follow-up story of your blackjack adventures?
Thanks for asking. I am loving my new phone. I don’t miss the touch screen at all. My only problem, which showed up just this morning, is that I’ve run out of memory from all the spreadsheets and files I’ve loaded, so now I’ll have to buy a memory chip.
Well, one other problem. I don’t know how to change the font size for Solitaire, so I cannot play unless I have my reading glasses on.
After I wrote about my new life as Captain Jack Sparrow, my daughter started calling my Captain Ron. That wasn’t what I had in mind.
Buy my wife Cyndi countered by calling my Captain Jack Aubrey, from Master and Commander. Well, that was pretty cool. Now I walk around looking for opportunities to say “quick’s the word, sharp’s the action.”