Newfangled technology

So I got a new cell phone the other day. I finally got fed up with Cingular (raising the bar … and their customers’ blood pressure) and switched back to Sprint.

I used Sprint many moons ago, but I dumped them for Verizon when misfortune befell my phone and I couldn’t get through to customer service in time to replace it on my lunch hour.

I loved Verizon, but they’re not in Tulsa yet. I considered sticking with Cingular until Verizon gets here (they’re putting up towers all over town right now), but when I went to the Cingular store to see if I could get a better deal in the meantime, I got the impression they’d hired Despair.com to train their help … so I gave up and went across the street to Sprint instead.

I ended up with a handy-dandy new phone that has all sorts of little bells and whistles on it, including a planner that works way better than my Palm knockoff.

Today, I figured out how to set up the address book so the phone will play a different ringtone depending on who’s calling. I wasted $15 (and most of my evening) programming the phone to play all sorts of clever little theme songs.

I realize this technology has been available for several years, but I am always the last kid on my block to get new toys. Case in point: I bought my first CD player in the late ’90s. It was a Discman. I was too cheap to buy speakers for it, so I ran it through the amp on my 8-track player instead. (Who needs a fancy-schmancy new stereo system when you’ve got quadrophonic sound?)

I probably ought to feel guilty about the amount of time I wasted programming the phone to play the “Addams Family” theme song every time a member of my family calls … but it’s not like I had a lot else to be doing this evening anyway. It was too hot to run, too hot to work in the garden, and too hot to take the dogs for a walk.

On the up side, my water hyacinths seem to love this weather. They’ve been blooming like crazy ever since the heat wave started.

Emily