A day lost to technology—or was it?

 

Jacob working on assembling the composter

The finished assembly

You have no idea what a triumph those two pictures represent. It’s not just that Jacob put the composter together and got it set up out in the driveway—though that in itself is a victory. But the big deal is that I took those pictures with my phone and was finally able to send them to my computer, so that I could use them in a blog. Actually, I meant to use them several days ago when I blogged about the compost tumbler as part of the finally disappearing chaos at the cottage. But my phone wouldn’t cooperate.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, in the car coming back from Santa Fe, I noticed that I wasn’t getting any emails through my TCU account. Strange, because I always get at least 50 a day. The next day, home and settled, with my computer set up on my desk, I found a bunch of emails waiting on that account. And when I tried to send photos from my phone to my computer, nothing happened (which hampered my blogging a whole lot—my theory is a blog without pictures is mostly ignored).

Colin and I tried countless fixes over the phone—he in Tomball and me here at home. Nothing worked. If I have a computer problem, he takes over my computer and generally fixes it, but with the phone, he couldn’t see what was happening. He said I needed to get a Burton out here to Facetime with him and show him my phone, but it was a busy weekend, and I never found a tactful time to ask for that help. I told him I’d call the Help Desk at TCU—but I had to wait until Monday and TCU’s re-opening.

Monday came and went, Tuesday a doctor’s appointment took up too much of the day—I was stalling, because I was afraid trying to correct the problem would involve a long, long phone call with TCU and my inept computer skills would be revealed—and it was just something I dreaded. I was getting by because I still got emails on the computer, but the photo business really stymied me.

So this morning I called, and I got a lovely, understanding service tech named Cathleen. She walked me through re-installing the program (at some point I had deleted it from the phone)—something I had to do three times before I got it right, but she was patient, kept reassuring me. When it was all done, I had incoming mail on my phone and could send outgoing messages—but not photos.

Early afternoon Cathleen and I talked again, but by then I had on my own discovered a work-around: I’m not sure what you’d call the method I’d been using for years, but I activated Outlook on the phone and discovered I could send photos through that app. Hence, the photos you see.

An unrelated problem: in trying to make a call the other day, my thumb slid across the screen and suddenly the phone stopped speaking to my hearing aids. I could hear on different settings but not as clearly, and if someone called me, it went to the aids and was fine. Magically, this afternoon that corrected itself. Mine not to question, but I am pretty sure somewhere in all my dealings with TCU I turned the phone off and back on again, and I suspect the hearing aid program reset itself when I did that.

As you may tell, I have strong technology insecurities, so today was a long, trying day. (Okay, yes I had a nap—I told Cathleen I would be “out of pocket” or a couple of hours!). Still, it is always a relief to me to have all my technological things—computer, phone, hearing aids—working smoothly so I don’t have to worry about them.

And it’s also a relief when your cardiologist says, “See you in a year!” Thanks to Christian for taking me all the way to Harris Southwest for the appointment.

Things are looking up. Now if I can just get a handle on this cookbook/memoir about the Fifties.

Sweet dreams, y’all.