a wiper's tale . . .

Wow! I'm finally here!  Word-to-Go on my Blackberry Curve!  Never mind that I've owned this phone almost two years now and never checked out Documents-to-Go until today. And then there was the deal that my "included" version did not offer the "create a new file" option--which meant downloading a 30-day trial of the "premium" version and then rebooting the phone and . . .

Why now?  That is an even wilder personal technology tale!  I'm sitting in the waiting room of my car dealership, where I've spent three of the last four Saturday mornings also. The first visit was routine--oil change, tire rotating/balancing, and, by the way, could you replace my wiper blades?  I'm so trusting/oblivious/naive. Did I think to check the wiper blades when leaving?  No!!

It was only after running several errands on my way home that afternoon that I noticed that one wiper blade had gone AWOL. Where and how?  Who knew?  I found another open dealership that afternoon (mine had closed for the weekend) and had the blade replaced--with a mismatched clone--only to discover that the passenger wiper arm had also lost its connectivity, was out of commission, KAPUT.

Two weeks and many rainy days later, back at the dealership. Almost three hours later came the verdict that a part, not in stock, had to be ordered. OK . . .

After several email tussles over my needing to have the repair done on a Saturday, I was back last Saturday, armed with my  iPad, a book to read, papers to grade...  Two hours later came the verdict that the wrong part had been ordered and that the repair would take more time than their Saturday hours would allow. They'd work out a rental car for me though. What about bringing it in this morning (yes, a Saturday), picking up a rental, and then doing the swap-out, hopefully, after work on Monday?  Sure...  Not much of a rental car user or fan but, considering the alternatives ...

Did I mention that this was a warranty-covered repair?  Or that the part needed was out-of-stock statewide and had to be shipped from Texas?

So I was here bright and early this morning. Sent to the waiting room while they called the rental car place. I had read/deleted most of the 100+ unopened emails on my phone when they came with today's new scenario. Not a rental car to be found in the area!!!  But they had a technician on duty today who could replace my wiper transmission in maybe an hour or so?  Was I OK with waiting on that?

Needless to say, I had not come equipped, today, with iPad and a book to read and papers to grade. But I'm resourceful, if nothing else. I should have "killed" most of my hour's wait time by now. I'll email this story to myself so that it'll be ready to copy and paste into a blog entry once I'm home again.

I really should upgrade my phone, shouldn't I?

Followup: the repair took two hours so I consumed a cup of Starbucks cocoa and read some mindless magazines to fill the last hour.  Tested the wipers BEFORE leaving this time :-) Still mismatched, but HEY, they both work!!!  I can live with that . . .