“You’re becoming a SmartPhone junkie....”

.....my wife commented the other day (probably Tuesday, December 6, 2011).
“Yes, I guess I am,” I thought to myself, as I added appointments into the calendar on my SmartPhone.
My SmartPhone has a calendar-ap on it.
My SmartPhone is a Verizon DroidX®.
Great idea; carry your appointment calendar in your back pocket, and thereby make appointments outside, that don’t conflict with previous appointments.
We have appointments up the waazoo, so what was happening previously is we’d make an appointment with the caveat I might have to reschedule.
I’d come home and see if my new appointment conflicted with a previous appointment, in which case one would have to be rescheduled.
But now with my SmartPhone calendar in my back pocket I can avoid conflicts.
Although everything has to be entered, which takes time.
It also takes time to reschedule.
Plus there’s the embarrassment of having to do so.
I’m at Urology Associates of Rochester (NY) last week for my every-six-months prostate exam and assessment (mostly the results of a PSA blood-test).
All-of-sudden “DING,” the alert-sound my SmartPhone makes when it gets a notification.
“Now what?” I shouted as I grabbed my SmartPhone.
I was mightily embarrassed. Here I was committing the cardinal sin to medical professionals — I was talking to my doctor — paying more attention to my SmartPhone.
“I’m sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I forgot to turn this thing off.”
“Please turn off cellphones,” a sign says in the dentist-office.
“Ya better let me turn this thing off before starting,” I say.
“Please turn off cellphones when checking out,” says a sign at our organic market. “Please be considerate of our cashiers.”
Right, cellphones are a distraction.
I’m not about to make someone wait so I can answer my phone.
And a SmartPhone can be even more distracting. Add notifications, e-mails, etc.
If my SmartPhone rings while I’m driving, I ain’t answering.
I can’t both drive and carry on a cellphone conversation.
It’s got voicemail, plus I get notification of a missed call, which I can return.
Beyond that, cellphone use while driving is illegal in this state (NY), although drivers pay little attention, and go ballistic when written up.
“Oh no ya don’t!” I thought to myself at Urology Associates of Rochester.
“I ain’t lettin’ no cellphone control my life.”
But if they need to schedule a follow-up, out comes my SmartPhone.

• “A PSA blood-test” looks for Prostate-Specific-Antigen in the blood. If it’s high, it indicates the possibility of prostate-cancer. (I usually always pass.)