Beech Tree News Network

There are few things as entertaining to me as watching my husband, Garey, operate a cell phone.  I’ve said often, we keep young people at our work place because they are so good with technology, and to their credit, they do their best to help us old people navigate the technological pitfalls that trip us up.

On Friday, Lucas walked into my office, carrying Garey’s cell phone, and asked, “What’s Garey’s password to his phone?”

I stared blankly.  “Garey has a password on his phone?” I asked, “I thought he refused to set one up.”

“He set it up last week, when he accidentally hit NOW for the “set up password,” instead of selecting NOT NOW/LATER.  Remember, you wrote the password down.”

Again, I stared blankly for a few seconds then I remembered.  “He told me he was going to enter his passwords into his Note Page, and I could throw the paper away.”

Lucas rolled his eyes.  “His note page is on his phone.  His phone is locked and he needs the password to unlock the phone,” he said, with a bit of exasperation in his voice.  (To be fair to Lucas, he is our go-to person for these dilemmas, and he didn’t actually sign on to babysit two old people and their cell phones.)

I laughed out loud at the conundrum of having your passwords locked in a phone that needs a password to unlock it.  I could hear Garey headed our way.  He was still in mid-rant.  

“I am so sick of getting that stupid message in the first place!” Garey said.  “I only hit NOT NOW/LATER because they don’t have a NOT NOW/NOT EVER!  I don’t care who sees what’s on my phone, I don’t have anything to hide!” he added.

The reason this whole scenario entertains me is because Garey gets riled up over so little.  He is one of the calmest, most easy-going guys you could ever meet, but put a cell phone in his hand or stand him in front of a computer screen, and it’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  

Lucas had been working on bypassing the password while Garey was ranting and I was laughing, and, Thank God, he was able to make it happen before Garey grabbed it from his hands and threw it under a semi’s tires in the adjoining parking lot.

“You know, Honey,” I said, “That phone is equipped with thumbprint ID.  It would be a whole lot easier than remembering a password.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Garey said, “What if I accidentally cut my thumb off?  I couldn’t even dial 911 before I bled to death, because I wouldn’t be able to get my stupid phone unlocked!” 

Garey left the office still muttering under his breath, and I got back to my paper work.  In the meantime, we had customers coming and going, and the cell phone hoopla had been forgotten.  Until a guy who worked at a machine shop came in the office to pay for his oil change.

“How’s your day going?” I asked, as I was running his credit card.

“Not too good,” he said, as he raised his left hand, “I nearly cut my thumb off with a grinder.”

I burst out laughing.  I couldn’t stop myself.  I held up my index finger in the give-me-a-minute-and-I-will-explain gesture, and when I caught my breath, I did, explain, that is, about what Garey had said about thumbprint ID and 911.

The machine shop guy started laughing, as well.  Lucas came in, I showed him the guys thumb, and he too thought it was hilarious.  We called for Garey to come into the office, and when we showed him the partly-severed thumb, Garey was not amused.

“See!  See!” he said, with righteous indignation.   “What if he had to dial 911 and couldn’t get his phone unlocked!  He could have bled to death!  I know what I’m talking about!”

I saw his point.  Sometimes passwords aren’t your best method of protection, but they sure do serve up some good entertainment.