Technology, Thy Name Ain't Grandma!

Just over a month ago, I drove up to Northern Illinois to spend some weeks attending my grandchildren's happy events and celebrate Thanksgiving.  I charged my cell phone and took it with me.

Now, you have to understand that my so-called cell phone is a dinosaur.  It was a hand-me-down from my daughter years ago--a Motorola Tracfone.  I rarely ever used it.  The only time I ever had it on was when I was on the road, but even that seemed unnecessary since I always had a ham radio in my vehicle.  Then I bought a new vehicle just over a year ago that has no room for a radio.  Thus, I charged the cell phone for my trip up because there is no house phone up there.  The kids all use cells.  If they leave the house, I have no way to call 911 should an emergency arise.

One day while there and everyone was gone, I was trying to coordinate with Luda, the other woman in the house, in case she needed to be picked up from the gym due to predicted rainfall.  I took out my cell phone and turned it on.  She tried to call it, but it wasn't happening.  I looked at the screen.  It said: Unregistered SIM.  The phone had run out of days.  Later, after some figgering, Megan set up my computer with a phone calling system whereby I could call out from the computer.  That became a godsend.  None of us were willing to put more money into the Tracfone when it couldn't do anything besides make calls.  No texting, etc.  A dinosaur.  Thus, the end of that phone.

Then came December 1st.  My mortgage payment was due.  I forgot it for a couple of days but then decided I should get the job done.  Got online with the bank to pay it, as I always do, but the site wasn't accepting my password.  I made several failed attempts, then the system locked me out.  It occurred to me thereafter that the bank site had required me to change my password, and I didn't remember what it was!  Finally, I asked my daughter to look in her files to find my new password, but she (and I) realized that it had been changed after I had given her all of my user names and passwords...plus it was Saturday, and the bank's customer service office was only open on weekdays to help me unlock the site.  Since I was coming home late on Sunday, I knew I was still in the grace period for the mortgage payment.  I'd make the payment Monday, right?

What I haven't mentioned, so far, is that my son-in-law installed Windows 10 on my computer while I was there.  It's a small learning curve, but things are different.  I had to learn how tell my computer not to go into Sleep Mode every five minutes of non-use.  I had to learn how to set the time to EST instead of Central.  Blah!

I also haven't mentioned that my Christmas present from my children is a new cell phone.  It's a pre-paid deal but more like a Smart Phone than anything I've ever owned.  Wow!  Major learning curve there!!  I learned how to turn it on and off, to make calls, and even take pictures.  I got it hooked up to my wifi here at home.  Much, much, much to learn.  How do I respond?  With frustration!  I'm working on it...

So...I got home on Sunday and quickly discovered that both of my house cordless phones were DOA, even though they had been on the chargers for a month.  The rechargeable batteries had been failing for months.  I just didn't expect them both to be totally dead.  So how was I going to call the bank to get them to unlock my account in order to make my mortgage payment??  Cell phone!  Using the new cell, I called, got the bank to unlock my account so I could make my payment.  Do you think this is the end of the story of Technology vs. Grandma?  NOOOOO!  The bank's website was running so slowly that nothing was happening even after I got in.  I figured that I needed to reboot the modem, which I did...and that helped.

Thereafter, I went to Walmart and purchased another set of cordless phones.  Had to assemble them then put them on charge.  Still haven't set all of the features, but at least now I have home phones again.

Through an abundance of redundancy, I have survived a bunch of "what if's".  Computer, cell phone, regular phones, wifi.  It takes me a bit longer, but I can do this!!