Raincharm’s Weblog

This is about yesterday. I had plans, you know the, I would like to get X done today, list. Some of this focused on Carl and friend’s upcoming trip to Oakland, with a side of Mariners.

The plans didn’t even last until I got out of bed. I heard “my phone isn’t charging and won’t hold a charge.”

The knowledge of charging issues was a few days old when the charging port was irreparably damaged (it had been in poor condition for a few years), and a charging puck had been purchased until the problem could be dealt with.

Initially, that plan was to use the puck and embark on a phone replacement after Carl’s trip. About 1 week was all.

But the inability to hold a charge meant that most phone uses, like maps and tickets, would be delegated to traveling companions. We were prepared to copy down a few important contacts, but that’s when Plan B was put into action.

Step 1: Make an appointment as early as possible. Ms game later … We did get a 10 AM appointment, but not at the store closest to our house, but reasonable.

Step 2: Either fix the charging issue or acquire a new phone. The new phone quickly became where we were headed.

And not 1 phone, but 2. My phone works fine, but it has a display issues with odd shading. The writing was on the wall that the 7 year old phone’s useful life was limited. And having the same phone makes supporting each other easier.

A bit of time to get to step 2 and identify the likely replacement phones. Samsung S22s, replacing S7s.

Then, the more arduous part of the experience began. Not really the payment part, but the transfer of all of our stuff on our old phones to the new phones.

A few issues that meant that this lasted until about 3 PM.

1. The old phones had to be charged, and stay charged during the transfer. Recall Carl’s phone‘s charging issues, but in the end it was my phone that had problems here because nobody was paying attention to it’s charge.

2. The old phone’s storage was a limiting factor on how much could be transferred by wireless connection at a time. Our old phones had something like 32 gigs compared to 128 in the new phones. This also explains our continual battle with not enough storage messages. It wasn’t our nominal number of pictures, but the space that apps use now compared with 7 years ago.

It took 3 separate transfer actions to transfer from each old to new phone. And 3 tries to get the messages from my old to new phone.

Another weird result is that some Apps that were only on my phone now show up on Carl’s as well. I think the reason may be a setting that allows devices in proximity to each other to share, and especially since most of our apps use the same email address.

This and all of the Apps that come with the phone that we don’t want or need, there is now the phone maintenance to be undertaken. At a minimum this meant changing the ring tone chosen as the default for alarms. More later, especially since Carl’s phone has left the station.

As noted before from beginning to end this lasted at least 5 hours. Because it was clear the transfer was going to take some time we could leave and return. This allowed us to finish a task that had been delayed until Carl’s return, a Costco run. As it happens, there was a Costco across the parking lot.

A few hundred dollars later the provisions were in the trunk and the transfers were still underway. And, because phones time out and need to be unlocked, we left our passcode with the phones and headed home to unload.

The provisions and Carl stayed home and I returned to our phones. I think Carl’s phone was done, but mine was in the midst of its travails with messages. About an hour or two later I was finally released to go home, again.

It was almost time for the rest of the day to begin. And we were off to the Mariner’s game. For those not following, the Mariner’s march to a potential post season is precarious. There are 4 teams fighting for 3 spots in the AL, including the AL West winner. And we are playing the Dodgers, who have a firm lock on the post season, because they’re a really good team.

Carl figured it might be a blowout early, with a top pitcher going for the Dodgers, and we could leave early to go home and try to finish some of those items on our Plan A list that was derailed earlier.

To the Mariner’s credit, they hung in through 10 innings. It was a good game. But in the 11th it got out of hand. So we left early, but not early enough for task completion.

On the plus side, we ran into friends we had not seen for a while on the train ride home.

Most of the Plan A chores were delayed until this morning. And most have been completed.

Carl and friends have departed, heading to tonight’s stop in Eugene, OR. I am almost at loose ends because the pressure of yesterday has been released, and I am mentally done.

As a final note, I want to share a fantastic picture taken by my sister. It’s much better than anything I have to offer today.

This entry was posted on September 17, 2023 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.