Another geezer triumph

I’m 71 years old and had a stroke. I was told I wasn’t supposed to be able to do this.
My wife, now gone, was told I’d be a vegetable.
The other day (probably Monday, June 1st, 2015) I called some medical establishment with my iPhone6, which I promptly put on speakerphone.
Then I fired up my virtual telephone keypad, since office telephone systems often want you to key in a menu option.
I got referred to a human to reschedule an appointment.
Sometimes speakerphone is a mess. It goes in-and-out. My contact reported a bad connection.
“One second,” I said. I would switch off speakerphone and start using my smartphone like a regular telephone. That usually works.
Can’t. My keypad has masked my speakerphone option.
This has happened before. Gloriously trapped.
I was at the YMCA in Canandaigua, in the locker-room after workout.
A guy came over and looked at my phone.
“I have no idea,” he said.
“Still there?” I asked my contact.
“I guess I can’t get out of speakerphone; we’ll have to wing it.”
Call ended, I stewed.
“This can’t be rocket-science,” I thought. “There’s gotta be some way to switch.”
I called my landline at home; switched on speakerphone, and the keypad.
I noticed “hide” on the keypad.
BAM! Tried it; the old waazoo: “try this and see what happens.”
VIOLA! There it is, back to where I can switch off speakerphone.
“Finally got it!” I said.
I collared some poor guy changing clothes in the locker-room. “I finally got it,” I crowed.
“Thanks for being my de facto audience,” I said, as he walked out.
“It ain’t often an old geezer figures out one of these newfangled techno-toys.”

• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about two hours per visit. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I 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 14 miles east. —I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester [NY].)