Monday, October 27, 2014

I Gave Up!

Our children and friends have encouraged us to join them in the 21st century and get a smartphone.  While I didn't really want one the situation with Millenicom (our internet provider ) going out of business forced me to make a decision on who to go with for the internet on the road.  After a lot of thought and research we decided to stay with Verizon and take advantage of their double data plan and at the same time purchase a Samsung S5 smartphone.  We could have gone with a phone with more features, but thought the S5 was best for us.

Now we have 30 gig of data and a smartphone for just a few more dollars than we spent with our old Verizon phone and the Millenicom 20 gig plan.  We were able to keep our Jetpack Mifi unit since it was really a Verizon piece of equipment and we own it.  They are over nighting the phone to us here in Concord for free and and we will hang around an extra day to make sure we pick it up before we head down to Savannah, GA.  Texting still isn't in our future since neither of us really like to send text messages.

Yes, I know we will love it and wish we had bought it earlier and now we can do all those wonderful things with it.  GPS, Gas Buddy, Weather channel, Restaurants, Photos, etc.  Of course we do all those now with the computer, Tom Tom and a camera, but now we can do it another way.  Progress doesn't come easily.

We had an interesting visit to Costco today.  Larry Jr & Family were headed that way and we needed some things there and we drove in separate cars since each of us needed space to haul the goodies home.  Jr. had some pictures that he had picked up from Costco and gave them to us to deliver to Barbara on Monday.  I had to move some things around in the car and placed the pictures on top of the Honda and then forgot about them.  We drove off and were heading home and heard someone beeping their horn and finally followed us to Larry Jr's house.  He informed us that the pictures had blown off the car and were in the road.  A busy road at that.

Well, it was time to hurry back and salvage what we could of the pictures and found them spread out over one hundred yards of a 2 lane highway in rush hour.  Not good.  I parked the car with the emergency lights on and we started to pick up the pictures.  A woman and her grandson parked in front of us helped, another person stopped and also a man on a bicycle helped.  It was a madhouse for a few minutes and we had traffic backed up for a block or so when we finally retrieved all the pictures.  We thanked the good samaritans were out of there in 5-10 minutes.  I am sure everyone that was delayed weren't that happy, but nobody flipped us the bird or yelled.  The people down in Mint Hill, NC still have manners and showed it today.  Our hats are off to all of them.

I watched Gerry, Jane and Grant carve out some pumpkins.  The first one went well, but the 2nd pumpkin was spoiled and runny inside and very smelly.  Glad it was them and not me.  Jr grilled some great steaks and prepared potato wedges, salad and a Key Lime Pie for desert.  Great dinner and even better company.

Larry Jr took his mom out for a ride in his new (2010) BMW 328I and showed her what it could do.  He had it up to ciento veinticinco mph in short order and thought he was scaring her, but she is an old hot rodder and loved it.  Just don't tell anyone he was driving that fast.  I tried to sit behind the wheel but my stiff knees made it difficult to get comfortable.  The car sure did look good and maybe I can get a picture of it on Monday

We visited with them a while longer and then came back to the motor home and hopefully get a good night's sleep and be ready for an early morning ride over to Barbara's house and pick up the new phone.  Good night.

5 comments:

  1. I bet you also learn to text. We've found that the younger generation will respond to a text even when they will ignore the phone call. And if you just want to say something quickly, it's the easiest way to do it. Have fun learning how to use it. Todd used to take his Dodge Avenger to a road type race course and I went with him to do the course. We got to 135 mph and I loved the speed. Yahoo!!!

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    1. Sandie, We actually do use texting through our computer. I do it that way so I don't have people texting me that I don't know. We used to get text msgs in the middle of the night and early in the morning since we have an Maryland area code and spend a lot of time in Arizona. Now I have a choice on how I want to send text messages.

      I also love speed and raced every car my dad had when I was younger, but stopped that when I had to pay for repairs. Growing up in Illinois during the 50s was great since the speed limit was "reasonable and proper" and we lived next to US Rt 66 and used it as our personal racetrack. Traffic wasn't as heavy in those day and you could put the pedal to the metal just about anytime. I won't say what the fastest I went on that road, but it was well over 135mph in a souped up Chrysler 300D. The telephone poles looked like a picket fence and I was glad to slow down to a more reasonable speed.

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  2. When you text you will see a microphone. You can speak your text. Amazing. You will text, fb, yes, gps, gasbuddy, whatever. Becoming more handy all the time for me.
    Spent a couple days back at the Sprint store to get some things ironed out.
    I like the syncing with the computer address book if you are gmail. You see your whole address book on the phone including the notes.
    You will also see all the pics from your blog from syncing.
    Have fun and safe travels.

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  3. Good for you two. I'll expect a full report on your new phone when you get to CC. BTW, Kevin is leaving. Got a job in VA. Don't know when though. Linda George sold her place and moved back to OR and Fred and Mary bought her place. See ya.

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    1. Well how about that, Kevin leaving after less than 9 months. It seems we have a new manager there every year and we didn't even get to know him. I guess Nate will be spending the winter in Tucson once again. Doesn't sound good for the park when they can't keep their hired help. Not good for us either with each one coming in and changing things around.

      Surprised to hear Fred & Mary bought a place back there when they have that nice motorhome. Interesting! Maybe they are getting tired of living on the road and want to settle down. It happens to most people after a few years. So far we still enjoy the lifestyle, but when we don't we will settle down somewhere also. Just not yet.

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