What an incredible toy this thing is

“I bet this thing will shoot video,” I thought to myself, as I fiddled my Droid-X® SmartPhone (pictured at left), in the locker-room of the Canandaigua YMCA, after working out in their Exercise-Gym.
It downloads my e-mail, and reports any missed calls.
I don’t take it into the gym with me.
Supposedly that’s verboten, although many do.
People are pumping away on a treadmill, and all-of-a-sudden the “Ride of the Valkyries” ringtone.
And Blondie shrilly badmouthing her husband to Ma, cellphone clamped to her ear with her upraised shoulder.
After checking my e-mail, I went to the app-screen.
There was “camcorder.”
I fingered it.
All-of-a-sudden an image of the locker-room floor was on the display.
“What an incredible toy this thing is,” I said to the guy next to me.
“That one of them there SmartPhones?” he asked. “Start your dinner from across the universe?”
“YEP,” I said. “That’s the locker-room floor.”
I noticed a red button on the display.
I triggered it,
All-of-a-sudden the thing was recording the floor.
I stopped the recording, and deleted it via menu options.
I should note I had a stroke long ago, October 26, 1993, so I’m always running on seven cylinders — what’s left.
I’m also 67 years old; well beyond the age I should be fiddling with these things.
“Don’t die yet,” I said to my wife back home.
“This thing will record video, and it looks pretty good,” I added.
My wife has cancer, but it’s supposedly treatable, although I worry.
Next morning I took my SmartPhone outside, and recorded our dog exploding out our back gate across our wide backyard to another fence that surrounds our property.
She smells deer outside, and goes back there to serenade ‘em.
I got the recording, viewed it once, but after that into the ozone. “Can’t view file,” it said.
“Huh?” I said.
I tried again next morning, got the recording, viewed it, and “That’s a keeper,” I said.
But two icons of that video were on the display-screen, one just sound but no video.
Okay, delete the one with no video, but that apparently also deleted the valid video.
So I lost everything. (Thank you, Droid!)
So why two icons of the same video when there’s only one video?
I won’t go into the total reboot I had to do the day before.
As usual, no manual. The old waazoo: “Try this and see what happens.”
Apply noggin; see that red button on the screen? I bet that’s a “record” button.
It was.
It successfully recorded the YMCA locker-room floor, a video which I later deleted.
So try again; perhaps someday we will batter this toy into submission.
I tried again this morning, but this time the dog arrowed off toward our garden, to check where a bunny-rabbit had escaped at 3 a.m.
She can’t get into our garden.
So far the sun has been out every morning I tried; perhaps it will be out tomorrow morning (Tuesday, March 29, 2011).
My sister (age 65) in Florida (Fort Lauderdale) is considering buying a Droid, so the dog video will be for her.
She’ll buy one — it will tip the balance. She has grandchildren.
No grandchildren for us. Only a dog that gets us oldsters up at 3 a.m. to chase bunny-rabbits.

• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about three-four hours per visit. —About 900+ calories per visit.
• “Canandaigua” (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city 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.
• “App” = applications (computer software).
• Our current dog is “Scarlett;” a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s almost six, and is our sixth Irish-Setter. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't too bad.)
• “Reboot” is to restart the computer from off.