While I waited for an appointment yesterday, at the pain clinic, another patient suddenly exclaimed:
“Oh! Look at this photograph!”
She extended her hand to display the image she had received on her iPhone. A friend had captured a large flock of snow geese, somewhere in Vermont.
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The lady did say whereabouts in Vermont but, we were hardly going to rush over there, so I didn’t take note.
There was an occasion, last Spring I think, when a single snow goose found its way to the Hudson, where I spotted it among the Canada geese. I’d love to see a whole flock.
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It brings to mind a favourite poem:
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Snow Geese by Mary Oliver Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last! What a task to ask of anything, or anyone, yet it is ours, and not by the century or the year, but by the hours. One fall day I heard above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was a flock of snow geese, winging it faster than the ones we usually see, and, being the color of snow, catching the sun so they were, in part at least, golden. I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us as with a match, which is lit, and bright, but does not hurt in the common way, but delightfully, as if delight were the most serious thing you ever felt. The geese flew on, I have never seen them again. Maybe I will, someday, somewhere. Maybe I won't. It doesn't matter. What matters is that, when I saw them, I saw them as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly. . .........
My appointment was for evaluating the last treatment and to arrange the next.
It took 5 minutes flat.
Driving back and forth and waiting occupied the best part of the day. I made a feeble attempt once, to fast forward through this procedure which seems so unnecessary, but one must follow the system.
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All told, I must have spent several lifetimes waiting around for one thing or another, but I’ve always been pretty good at keeping myself entertained.
When I’ve been unprepared, book-less, I’ve become a watcher, which is fascinating in airports or even in emergency rooms.
When that fails, I can always daydream.
These days, my iPhone provides access to WordPress so I can catch up with my blog. At times, I’ve even managed to add comments, but my fingers are too stiff and clumsy.
Inevitably I’ll be in mid-comment when my name is called.
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Acquiring an iPhone was a big deal for me. I detest phones and adjusting to a device that seemed so complicated caused me considerable anxiety.
All I wanted was to receive and place calls. Suddenly, I had an object which appeared to delight in placing calls I had not initiated, to people I particularly did not wish to speak to.
Eventually, I found a model I could manage. Then I thought to use the camera application, but the results were disappointing. I knew the iPhone’s camera was good but could I, should I…?
In the end I compromised by purchasing an older model, much reduced in price and held my breath, wondering if I would be able to cope with this new device.
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When the box arrived, I unwrapped it and contemplated the new phone. It was smaller so it fit my hand better but it also felt more solid somehow, which seemed unlikely.
Looking at it wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I crossed my fingers and activated the transfer from my old, very battered Android.
The transfer could not have been easier. Astonishing.
It had never occurred to me that being familiar with Apple would make their version of a cellphone more friendly to me.
It was the first such phone I could almost get along with.
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And the camera is pretty amazing.
A new model just came out which, I understand from a reliable source, has a brilliant camera. But I cannot justify the expense.
Maybe when they come out with the next generation and drop this ones price. How much better can it get?
*****
Now, you’re going to laugh…
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Guess what’s just “gone wrong”?
It’s not actually the phone itself, since Grant is experiencing the same problem with his.
We are unable to make or receive calls. To get the matter resolved, we need to call a technician.
HOW IN THE HELL DO WE DO THAT?
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Using the internet, I managed an online chat.
Not my favourite way to spend time.
Did I have “SOS”? Yes, I did.
“Oh, sorry to hear that!”
Apparently you don’t want to see SOS on your phone.
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It means you call contact emergency services but nothing else. Since the accounts are up-to-date, and the phones themselves working, I don’t understand. The chat continued.
My Sim number? Ah shit, where’s a paper clip?
Amazingly, I managed to get the thing out and could just about read the number.
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All to no avail.
A phone call must be made.
Fortunately, our neighbour was home, so we traipsed down and I went through all the same information a second time, speaking with an agent who, from the sound effects was in the kitchen of a very busy Indian restaurant.
Finally, I was connected to a technician who required the same information one more time.
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Having been told by the two previous agents that there was “no indication of problems”, it was disclosed that there was trouble with the tower which has been out since November 16th.
The phones only stopped working this morning but why bother pointing this out?
Any chance the tower will be up soon?
No idea.
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We can communicate with people all over the world using What’s App. Free.
But I can’t call to order a refill of Muffin’s medicine.
Inquiring the location of the tower, just for the hell of it, I was told it’s 2 miles away in downtown Cambridge.
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It’s also the water tower, apparently.
Somehow I think if we drive down there, we are unlikely to see technicians at work.
Our appeal for help was received with rather a lack of concern or urgency but I don’t blame the agents I spoke with. I am sure they are just doing what they have to do.
That they manage to be polite is enough to ask.
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Do we find a new service provider?
There’s no guarantee it would be any different.
Go back to having a house phone?
Our neighbour has one and I barely remembered how to use it! In some situations, it’s good to have but in 5 years, this is the first such occasion.
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In SE Asia, in the 1950-60’s, we had no phones of any sort so you didn’t have to worry about that sort of communication. News tended to be a bit old when it arrived, but so what?
Anything serious was communicated by telegram. Mostly, you didn’t want to get those.
Life was so much simpler!
First photo – Buffalo stampede. I haven’t seen anything else yet!
We still have a landline house phone, and that is one of the reasons why. I have never used any Apple products, but we have Android smartphones and there is our network provider’s phone shop in the city where we can go to resolve anything that cannot be dealt with over the phone.
I mainly avoid issues by rarely changing my phone.
The one I have now has served me well for 4 years, and unless it breaks down, I have no intention of changing it. We have contracts here for unlimited texts and calls and mobile Internet allowance, so we don’t buy phones outright. After 2 years we ‘own’ the phone, and qualify for an upgrade at a small cost. My contract is currently £21 a month.
My wife has a newer Samsung phone with more features and unlimited Internet, she pays £34 a month.
She uses her phone as a camera, I almost never use mine for photos.
Best wishes, Pete.
Oh for a simple life, especially if we can have such beautiful peeling bark as you’ve shown!
To think the main reason one actually has a phone is to make and receive calls – and now that’s the one thing you can’t do! When we have ‘load shedding’ (that’s when Eskom, our energy utility, switching off the distribution of power when the demand is more than what they can provide 👀), our phones sometimes lose signal … technology is not always as great as we all think!
Oh, and I love that poem. It makes me wish I could see snow geese too (which will probably never happen).
What a pain! How dependant we have become on technology. I call mobile phones umbilical cords. 😉