Oh help.

The one on the right is the phone I've been using since 2008, I think, maybe longer. It's the hugely popular Razor phone by Motorola. I liked it because it came in a variety of colors and was reasonably easy to use. It was a phone. All I need a phone for is to make and receive calls. I had to take Internet connectivity to start with but I canceled that after the initial 90 days because I don't want to surf the Internet from a screen that's 2 by 4 inches. Texting? HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's a running joke. Want to really aggravate me? Tell me to text you back.

The Razor was a very good phone. Once I learned how to use it, I even took a few photos with the camera even though I never could figure out how to send them anywhere.

My contract is up and the compartment on the back of my Razor has been bent so it doesn't hold shut anymore. I have it taped to keep the SIMM card and the battery covered. The screen is showing wear and it's getting hard to read. I have the internal light turned all the way up but, on these bright sunshiny days, I can't read the screen, at all. But I know the company is trying to cut down on expenses so I'll just suffer through until such time as I can't make phone calls.

Meanwhile, Mike and Jon's company cell phones have small problems with them. The screen on Rodney's phone breaks. So, Jon starts investigating phone plans and realizes we can save money by consolidating the various cell phone plans we got as people came to work for us, into one plan. That gets us new phones. I didn't say anything. Hey, I can still get and make phone calls. I don't need a new phone.

When Jon's phone comes, he shows it off, as guys are wont to do with new gadgets. My Razor sits on my desk so he picks it up and the back falls off. Ooops. Time for a new piece of tape. Aghast, Jon looks up my contract and discovers I'm out of the contract. I can get a new phone. We are all getting roughly the same model and we will all have Nextel direct connect. As we often find ourselves out in the field with a need to talk to someone, this is a great feature for us. I could have either red or black as my color choices. I had to laugh. It reminded me of the quote attributed to Henry Ford. "People can have any color of car they want so long as it's black."

So, my phone came last week. Jon charged it and then ported my number to the new phone. If you have my cell phone number, it's still the same. Now I have the wonderful job of moving all my numbers from the old phone to the new phone. The nice thing about having to do this manually is that I can look at all these names and decide I don't need his or her phone numbers anymore.

I've used the direct connect feature once, to tell Jon that I figured out how to use it. I took the charger home to make sure it gets charged particularly over weekends. I don't like the interface for organizing phone numbers, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I'm about half-way through with entering numbers. I need to order a cell phone case. It's strongly recommended. I need to set up my voice mail box. I have a camera and a video camera. Wow. No, I am not thrilled. I'll never use it. I can't stand the ring tone so that has to be changed. I'm sure there are a number of wallpapers to make the picture look better. I have to find those.

It's always a learning curve with something new, particularly something like this. In another month, I'm sure I'll be using it like a pro. The best news is that we have saved close to $100 on our company cell phone charges and we will be more efficient with our time. In this economic climate, that $1200 a year is hugely important.

Beverage: Water

Deb