Today, I Entered the 21st Century

Samsung Galaxy SIII

For some time now I have been using a standard cell phone. You know, the kind that flips open. The kind that has a rather rudimentary camera. The kind which has a tiny memory capacity.

Seems that the kids would send me pictures, which would quickly overwhelm my phone's memory, requiring me to delete something before I could look at incoming traffic.

Only to find out that it was the WSO doing a "Reply to All", not as text, but as a picture.

So I would've deleted a cute picture of Bear (the Nuke's dog) only to read the WSO's inane "LOL" response to some other message.

Apparently I spent a goodly amount of time "bitching" about that. Note that word in quotes. This is because men do not "bitch". We complain. We grumble. We mutter. But we do not ever "bitch".

Okay. We do. Sometimes. I will grudgingly admit this. But I won't bitch about it.

So, in order to cut down on "Dad's constant bitching", the WSO decided to get me a new phone. Off to the AT&T store she went to accomplish that goal. But, hélas, she was unsuccessful. Let me explain why.

Back some years ago when my son, the Naviguesser, received his commission in the United States Navy, he thought it would be nice to get his younger siblings cell phones for Christmas. Because he was making good money as a black shoe Professional Surface Warfare Officer. So he went forth and did so. And his sisters were quite rightly pleased.

At one point, I asked the question "Who's going to pay the cell phone bill, oh son of mine?"

"Why I will Dad, at least until my sisters graduate from college and receive their own Naval commissions." he replied in his best Officer of the Deck (OOD) command-voice.

Over the years, my son remained in the system as "The Account Holder". I guess in AT&T's eyes this is somewhat akin to being "Duke of York". It's a hereditary title which one cannot pass on to someone else. Even though his phone is on a different account. Most confusing this is to a simple guy like moi.

So every time we want to upgrade a phone (which is what AT&T calls buying a new phone) we have to jump through various hoops. Such as getting my son to add whoever wants a new phone to the account. Apparently one can have as many phone lines as one wants, but one is allowed only two people "on the account". Other than "The Account Holder" himself.

Alright, he did that like a month ago when the Nuke "upgraded" her phone. And he had to do it again today when I "upgraded" my phone. But that does not explain why the WSO was unable to simply purchase a new phone for me. Well, it does in part.

The other reason was that AT&T would not be able to transfer my "Contacts" (read: saved phone numbers) to my new phone without having my old phone. So in lieu of buying me a new phone, the WSO bought me a gift card with which to purchase my new phone.

And of course there were hoops to be jumped through there as well. I had to "activate" the gift card. Online. Had to have a special "activation code" to do so. Which the WSO had. In California. She was in Michigan for Christmas.

So there was a bit of a delay in my getting a new phone.

But have one I do. I have joined the 21st Century.

It's a brave new world for the Old Sarge.

A brave new world...