Phone Untangling.

"Mom, I need scissors, a paper clip, and some tape," #1 Son told me.

Scissors are here with the paper clips, i said, opening the drawer, and the tape is in your dad's briefcase.

"Why is...oh, never mind, I may not want to know," he said as he rifled through the briefcase on the table.

What are you trying to do? i asked.

"Fix my phone," he said, matter-of-factly.

Um, aren't most phones these days past the technology where a paper clip helps? i queried.

"Yes, but I need the paper clip to poke into this hole so I can get the SIM card out, and, well, this is how you make the SIM card fit in the new phone I had to get because my old one is broken."

Siri must have quit talking to you, i noted.  (For a couple of weeks after he broke the screen, he could still tell Siri to call people and set alarms for him.  Then someone spilled water on it.)  And how did you get a new phone? i asked.

"My friend Trent gave me his old one.  By the way, I'll need for you to call the phone company to get the new one activated, since they have me on this old one and just moving the card isn't enough any more."

Talk about an understatement.  Not only did the SIM card surgery not quite work out to specs and have to be done at one of the stores, i had a horrible time getting customer service on the line, because i didn't know i had to be at the store with him to get the card activated.  They told me to call customer service once he was back home.  When i did, they wanted to know everything about every transaction on the account for the last 6 months to make sure it was me.  It surprised me that they didn't ask for my blood type.

The biggest snag came when the customer service guy, who was quite nice and patient with my having to trawl the memory banks for answers, told me to have #1 Son dial a number from the phone.

He turned it one and found out he needed a pass code.  His friend Trent didn't tell him that.

He couldn't call Trent, because Trent's number is on his phone.  Yes, i have Trent's number, but i was on the phone with customer service.

#1 Son drove up the block to Trent's, and came back defeated.  The phone was originally Trent's girlfriend's son's phone, which she gave Trent when she got her son a new one.  She can't answer her phone at work, so no way to call her and get her to call her son and get the code.

So now, says Mr. Customer Service Guy, do we have iTunes on the computer so we can reset the phone to default?

Of course not.  My computers are old, and we have to pray daily that they will work.  They don't do cool stuff like iTunes.

Go to the store out on Pike Road, they are the tech support place locally, maybe they can help, is what i'm told next.

To the store, which turned out to be the wrong store.  There are two on Pike Road (it's a long, long road).  The nice guy there got the SIM card programmed since the other store had put it in the phone,  but #1 Son and Trent would have to go to the Apple Store to get them to reset the phone to default so it could be used. 

Why would Trent have to go?  As the original owner of the phone, he'd have to be there to prove he owned it and gave it to #1 Son

Going over all this overcomplicated mess that has become our phone system, the thought came to me.  One family.  Six people.  Seven phone lines (one is the home phone).  Somehow, i don't think Alexander Graham Bell ever envisioned this.  

Today is

Autistic Pride Day -- an Aspies for Freedom www.aspiesforfreedom.com/ initiative; shifting the view from "disease" to "different"

Constitution Day / National Day -- Seychelles

Czech Days -- Tabor, SD, US (celebrating foods and traditions of the Czech people who settled this area; through Saturday)

Eid el-Galaa -- Egypt (Evacuation Day; final withdrawal of British this date in 1956)

Fort Union Trading Post Rendezvous -- Williston, ND, US (re-creation of the fur trade era; through Sunday)

Foundation Day -- Benguet, Philippines

Going Forth of Neith Along the River -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of war and hunting; date approximate)

Go Fishing Day -- anniversary of the first American fly-casting tournament this day in 1861 in Utica, NY

International Picnic Day

International Sushi Day

Inti Raymi Festival -- Cusco, Peru (traditional Inca sun worship festival, through the 24th, which is the biggest and best day)

Kiamichi Owa-Chito Festival of the Forest -- Beaver's Bend State Park, Broken Bow, OK, US (celebration of Native American culture; through Saturday)

Napoleon Bivouacs -- Waterloo, Belgium (reenactment of Napoleon's military camp at the sight of his battle battle against Allied forces led by the Duke of Wellington, and this year, for the Bicentenary of the Battle there will be a larger reenactment; through the 21st)

National Cherry Tart Day

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association encourages you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices 

National Splurge Day -- explanation here

Prairie Villa Rendezvous -- Prairie du Chien, WI, US (learn about the fur trader lifestyle of days gone by, make Indian fry bread, learn how hard it was to load a rifle with gunpowder back in the day, learn about plants and medicines, and more; through Sunday)

Queen Mother's Birthday -- Cambodia (Ex-Queen Norodom Monineath)

Ramadan -- Islam (began sunset yesterday, through July 17)

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!

Sam Steele Days -- Cranbrook, BC, Canada (fun for all, celebrating the life and legend of Sam Steele of the North-West Mounted Police in the 1880's; through Sunday)

Shakespeare on the Green -- University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, US (nonprofit professional productions of the Bard's works, including preshow seminars, workshops, period music and entertainment; this year's performances will be As You Like It and Othello, each performed several times through July 5)

St. Gregory of Fragalata's Day (Patron of Fragalata, Sicily)

St. Osanna Andreasi's Day (Patron of school girls)

Tiger-Get-By's Birthday -- Fairy Calendar

Waterloo Day -- UK (no longer an official holiday, but still of historic importance)


Birthdays Today:

Eddie Cibrian, 1973
Nathan Morris, 1971
Richard Powers, 1957
Carol Kane, 1952
Isabella Rossellini, 1952
Roger Ebert, 1942
Paul McCartney, 1942
Lou Brock, 1939
John D. Rockefeller IV, 1937
Tom Wicker, 1926
Donald Keene, 1922
Red Adair, 1915
Sammy Cahn, 1913
Sylvia Field Porter, 1913
E.G. Marshall, 1910
Bud Collyer, 1908
James Kern "Kay" Kyser, 1905
Jeanette MacDonald, 1903
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova of Russia, 1901
George Herbert Leigh Mallory, 1886
Henry Clay Folger, Jr., 1857
E.W. Scripps, 1854


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Archipelago S"(Takemitsu orchestral work), 1993
"Der Freischütz/The Marksman"(Opera, Weber Op. 77, J. 277), 1821


Today in History:

Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China, 618
Five monks from Canterbury report seeing "two horns of light" on the shaded side of the moon, probably witnessing the meteor impact formation of the Giordano Bruno crater, 1178
The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature, 1264
French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay, 1429
Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island, 1767
The U.S. Congress  declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1812
The Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for the second and last time, 1815
Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory, 1858
Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 (US) for attempting to vote in the prior year's US presidential election, 1873
Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families, 1900
Aviator  Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly as a passenger in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, 1928
The "Finest Hour" speech is delivered by Winston Churchill, 1940
The Republic of Egypt is declared and the monarchy is abolished, 1953
Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane, 1959
The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California, 1981
Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, 1983
Kazakhstan launches its first satellite, KazSat, 2006
Sequoia, IMB's Blue Gene/Q system installed at the Department of Energy becomes the world's fastest supercomputer, 2012
New data reveals that over 280 previously unknown craters exist on the Moon, 2013