Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, Harold took me out for Valentine's dinner and we had a very nice time. We ran into that other romantic big spender, Doug. He had 30 minutes to wine and dine Carol before he was off to referee some basketball games. I will leave the name of the restaurant up to your imaginations....... How did you spend your Valentine's Day? On second thought, if it involved diamonds or Tio Pepe's, maybe it's best if you don't share.

You may recall that a while back we discovered that some of the older generation have cell phones but don't turn them on, they are for "emergency " use ony. Jeff stopped by and reported that his mother rarely turns her phone on. However, she turns it on to call Jeff's cell phone. For whatever reason, she won't use her landline phone to call his cell. This discussion prompted Pat R. (who kept her cell phone off) to research a bit about cell phone use. Her newfound knowledge follows:


5 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELL PHONE COULD DO: There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:
  • FIRST The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile, network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you. Interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out. Sue's Note: "Type 112 in your phone's address book now so you can remember it in a panic. Mine's under "Help"."
  • SECOND Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: "It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!" Sue's Note: "This won't work if I have locked my purse and cell phone in the car with the keys. I imagine."
  • THIRD Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time. Sue's Note: Store this code in your cell's address book under "Battery".
  • FOURTH How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone? To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #, a 15 digit code appears on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones. Sue's Note: "This tip is of no help to me if I file the code in the mythical "safe place". That is where my family's Valentine cards are currently hiding."
  • FIFTH Free Directory Service for Cells . Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Sue's Note: Program this into your cell phone now under "Info".

So Pat, is your cell phone on right now, or are you saving the batteries???? Thanks for the info.

More interesting news about the generations. Some of the same folks who didn't turn their cell phones had never heard the expression, "Does a bear sh** in the woods?" They had also never heard the philosophical question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?" Thank goodness we were all aware of this debate: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Spoke with a young salesman at the computer store. He told me his dad has been selling old floppy disks and floppy disk drives on e-Bay for good money. See, the key is to collect something expendable that most of of throw out. This explains why floppies may be worth more than Beanie Babies some day. Any thought on which things we are currently disposing of that may become valuable? I'm thinking I'll hold on to all those old cell phones and batteries!

Happy Valentine's Day, and good night.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I went out and got 6 nice long screws which made me happy...
...........................................................................philips head metal screws to finsh off the project of repainting and then replacing teh knobs on my kitchen cabinets

Anonymous said...

Sue-------Thanks for the cell phone info. I think my wife and I are the only two people left in the U.S. who don't have a cell phone. When i recently got a part time job where a cell phone was provided I had to tell them I had never used one before and they looked at me like I was from Mars.