Calling Mr. Armstrong

As I write this blog my grandson is in the hospital and my wife has been driving to Orlando on a daily basis to be with him; using the only car we own. All this to say I recently dropped my cell phone on the sidewalk in the wee hours of the morning during my “O Dark Thirty” 10 mile trek. And though I re-rode the course for a total of 20 miles that morning, I was unable to locate it. As a result, and not having access to a motor vehicle, I determined today to pedal to the nearest phone store, a distance of perhaps 6-7 miles, and purchase another one.

Having arrived at said location I walked in, and inquired whether I might bring my altogether new, and relatively expensive bicycle in with me. Initially, I was denied, or at least forestalled. Ultimately, I was told that I might bring it in, but by that time it was apparent that the clerk and I would be doing our business, (nope, that doesn’t sound real nice) where I could “keep an eye” on my bicycle. 

Explaining the situation to her, and that I wanted a similar model to the one I lost, the saleslady pointed out a ‘cheapee’ which was immediately available for a whopping $49.00, plus $20.00 upgrade fee. And with this, I proceeded to negotiate a lower price (not). At any rate, as I ‘sealed the deal’ I asked whether my old texts and messages could be transferred to my new phone. Assuring herself that my old phone was somewhere in “God’s Blue Yonder” and nowhere to be found, the clerk responded in the negatory. 

“No Sir. The old texts and phone messages are still on your previous phone, and can’t be retrieved. If you had the actual phone with you I could disable it permanently, and we could retrieve your texts and messages for you.”

Well, needless to say, I asked her the same question “three different ways to Sunday” and came up with the same response every time. (Obviously, many of my phone contacts were stored in the old phone, and par for the course I hadn’t written the numbers down, or stored them anywhere else).

It has been said, and I have read (rhymes) that the Lunar Landing Module was primitive compared to modern spacecraft and the computers which run them. Amazingly, the amount of computing power and e-storage on the Lunar Lander was equivalent to a 21^st century calculator!

All things considered, it is almost beyond my comprehension that Americans first set foot on the surface of the moon half a century ago, using such a rudimentary computer system, but in our day and age a few lost texts and phone messages which inhabit the innards of a wayward cell phone cannot be rescued from “the (so-called) cloud.”

Perhaps I need to put out a call for Neil Armstrong. 


By William McDonald, PhD.  Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary," Vol. 36. Copyright pending

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