Ron,
Don't feel bad. You are not alone in this. I still can't program a VCR. When our local cable TV company switched to digital, what ever that is, I opted out. Didn't want another box for every TV and the remotes that go with them. I have learned to hate remotes but "resistance is futile" and I need to get over the phobia, now that everything every imaginable has one. I never would have thought to consider the cost of batteries into my retirement planning. I could have had cable Internet service but didn't want to change my e-mail address, but now I get so much SPAM that I really don't care.
Living in the boonies has some advantages but getting connected and staying that way is not one of them. For years, I got along with just one phone line. Dial-up Internet, cellular, and long distance were provided by my local phone company. I don't know anything about TDMA or GSM. I just know that my cell phone worked in Canada, Alaska, and other remote locations in Utah and Nevada. It wasn't always seamless and I had to call in from time to time to have them turn on the switches but generally, I was satisfied with the service. Eventually, they discovered that I was the only Mid-Missouri Cellular customer to ever go to Alaska and the agreements were terminated. Thanks to an FCC regulation, I already had one phone bill for my wired phone and another bill for long distance service. My local calling area included only 175 phones. Anything beyond four miles was long distance. Even calls for emergency services were long distance. No 911 here. Eventually, my phone company split off the Internet and cellular and was
sold to another regional company. I signed up with Cingular for travel but I was in a fringe area. Well, you can get the picture. I had to keep the old cellular phone for service at home and I was dealing with five companies in order to get the service previously provided by only one. I was able to dump the long distance but still had to keep the wired phone for Internet dial-up. During the past year, all but one of the original companies has
sold out. The cable TV has been
sold twice and I just found out that Mid-Missouri Cellular has been sold to Verizon and I will need a new phone. Do I really need one with a camera and built-in flashlight?
Thanks to Gina, I have a lot to think about. The learning curve will be steep but I am willing to try anything if it will liberate me from my telephone nightmare.
Linear Mode
