Life without a phone

So, I killed my old iPhone 6s by -- get this -- dropping it in a toilet because I forgot it was in my back pocket. How lovely. Cleaned it off, dried it off, and then it proceeded to get hot, hot, hot. I was volunteering at an event and tried to be circumspect so no one would notice. One woman did but she shrugged it off. Meanwhile, it feels like my iPhone is going to explode so I put it in a cooler I had in my car. Probably a bad idea, but oh well. Came home and jumped on the laptop and scoured the internet in search of help: what to do with a water damaged, nonworking iPhone. What a confusing mess! I gave up, tried to get it repaired through my phone service provider (I have phone insurance), but I doubt that's gonna happen because my phone is locked and it needs to be unlocked and the instructions said go to iCloud, which I did, but it's a two-step verification process, and guess where iCloud is sending the code. Yep, to a phone that doesn't work. And there's no other way to do it.

So, I said screw it. While I wait with low hopes that my iPhone will dry out and magically start working, I found MagicJack on the internet and decided I need another phone that works through the computer. So I run up to the only Best Buy in the county that doesn't have MagicJack. I thought I online-researched this particular Best Buy but I guess not. So, I thought maybe Big Lots next door might have it. Nope. The sales clerk suggested Walmart. Good idea. So I run to Walmart but the parking lot looks like a Bucs gameday lot because, well, there's a hurricane on its way, slowly chugging toward the Gulf of Mexico and predicted to visit the Tampa Bay area sometime Wednesday or Thursday. So, I decided I'm not going into Walmart to buy one thing. Time to go home through all the rushing traffic and emergency vehicles.

Home sweet home. But now that I don't have my iPhone, I'm coming to understand how insidious the cellphone has become in my life. Every time I think I have to call so-and-so, I remember I can't. I have no phone. This is really kinda freaky. I'm so used to just grabbing my iPhone to text or call someone, look up information, and just peruse the news, and now I'm phoneless. I didn't want to rush and buy another phone (as well as changing to a new provider) during the stress of preparing for a hurricane and, quite frankly, I really don't want to go that route right now. I just "retired" from the library and while I'm footloose and fancy-free 😁, there's no income coming in anymore. Yikes!

But maybe I should have gone through the rigamarole of buying a new phone with a new provider because this morning I tried get into my bank account online (bills still need to be paid, hurricane or not) but it's a two-step verification process via text or call. Not gonna happen today. Thankfully, the bank offers an email option. Yay! Not. I tried two different emails and received five different codes, all of which were rejected by my bank as incorrect. So, the bills have to wait, and hopefully they do it patiently.

So, right now, I'm gonna have some rum for lunch . . . and dinner as I wait, phonelessly, for Hurricane Ian to come knocking on my door.