sho ‘nuf

Thank you Verizon, for helping two Senior Citizens!
(My wife and I are both 66.)
A few days ago — probably Saturday, May 22 — I was soaking my pants and my cellphone got dunked.
I carry it in a rear pants-pocket, so it can be easily answered. But not while driving. If it rings then, it stays in my pocket, and goes to voicemail.
While driving, cellphones are a distraction, even hands-free.
Especially trying to avoid other cellphone users.
Most phenomenal driving avoidances were cellphone users.
I once got nearly run off the road. This lady was also applying mascara and reading the Democrat & Chronicle.
All while driving and yammering on her cellphone.
Another time I nearly got backed over in the Honeoye Falls MarketPlace parking-lot by a lady on her cellphone.
And then she was incensed I had been in her way. —She glared at me! I had disturbed her cellphone conversation.
The Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym has a restriction against cellphone use therein.
But no one pays much attention to it.
There’s Blondie on a treadmill loudly telling her mother what a scumbag her husband is.
All-of-a-sudden “When the Saints Go Marching In” fires off on an adjacent cardiovascular trainer.
Our cellphones are Verizon.
An earlier phone got dunked about a year ago.
I went to the Verizon store in Cobblestone Court in Victor. They’re excellent.
They replaced my earlier phone immediately, no charge; although I was due an upgrade.
I suppose that’s what made it “no charge,” because this time there was a $50 deductible.
Our cellphones are insured, but it’s $50 deductible.
I was told to visit the Asurian® web-site. Asurion is Verizon’s insurance provider.
A replacement phone would be zoomed to me, but there would be a $50 deductible.
So did I wanna upgrade what I had, a Nokia 6205?
Not really.
I was quite pleased with it.
It’s not the most recent techno-wizardry.
It won’t start your dinner from across the universe, and it doesn’t have the fold-away miniature Qwerty keyboard.
We are not text-enabled.
We don’t need it, and were sick of paying for spam.
It’s just a phone, although it’s also a camera.
I also have two apps: -1) VZ Navigator®, and -2) MyCast® weather.
-VZ Navigator is a GPS navigation system, although I only got it because it would give me the exact geologic coordinates of where I was standing.
I could plug those coordinates into my MyCast computer weather radar, and get weather radar for an exact location.
For example, I stood right in front of my house with VZ Navigator and got the exact coordinates.
The weather radar covers a 170-mile spread, but is centered on our house.
-MyCast on my cellphone is not as precise as my computer.
It centers on Zip-codes; you can’t plug in geologic coordinates.
But it’s close enough.
I can access weather radar on my cellphone when I’m far from home.
I was in central PA once, and I could see a shower coming.
So we went back to the Cobblestone Verizon store yesterday (Saturday, May 29, 2010).
My replacement phone had come two days previous with instructions for self-activation.
We’d been given an 800-number to call, but that directed us to some other service we didn’t want.
“Robert?” the guy said.
We strode to the service-desk.
I showed him the replacement phone.
“First, we need to activate this,” I said.
“I tried, but got sent into the ozone.”
At least it was a person.
Machines don’t seem to be able to parry humans.
Cellphone activated, “is that it?”
“Well no,” I said. “My contact-list is stored in the great upstairs at your Backup Assistant. I need to get that contact-list on this phone.”
“Nothing to it,” he said. “Just install Backup Assistant on your phone, put in your PIN-number, and it downloads your list to your phone.”
“I don’t remember doing a PIN-number,” I exclaimed.
“Don’t know your PIN?” he said. “Backup Assistant will send it to you.”
“We’re not text-enabled,” my wife said.
“No problem,” he said. “Backup Assistant sends it directly; not text.”
“Thanks for all your help,” I thought. “.....Us old geezers are gonna do this ourselves; sho ‘nuf.”
“I had two other apps,” I added. “VZ Navigator and MyCast.”
“You can get those apps yourself — next customer.........”
We returned home, expecting another long journey back to the Cobblestone Verizon store.
I turned on my phone and downloaded VZ Navigator, MyCast, and Backup Assistant.
“Do you wanna use Backup Assistant now?” my phone asked.
“Yes,” I clicked.
“Your PIN please.......”
“I never did no PIN,” I thought.
“Click the pound-sign, and we’ll send you your PIN.”
BAM!
“0-0-0-0.”
“Sounds like some store-clerk did that,” I thought. “I always use my old RTS badge-number.”
“0-0-0-0” and it downloaded my entire contact-list to my phone.

• The “Democrat & Chronicle “ is Rochester’s daily newspaper.
• “Honeoye (‘HONE-eee-oy;' rhymes with 'boy') Falls” is the nearest village to the west to where we live in western New York, a rural village about five miles away. “MarketPlace” is a large independent supermarket therein.
• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA exercise-gym. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 15 miles away. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.)
• “Victor” is a somewhat larger rural village to the north of where we live, about 10-15 miles away. “Cobblestone Court“ is a shopping-plaza therein.
• RE: “Qwerty keyboard.......” —Look at your keyboard. The first six letters of the first row of letters are Q-W-E-R-T-Y.
• “Robert” is of course me; BobbaLew.
• “PIN” equals Personal-Identification-Number.
• “Apps” equals applications.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My badge-number was my employee number.