This new telecomm world is all well and good, but there are some parts of it I find annoying. For decades people made do with rotary phones on landlines. Then came push-button phones, still on landlines. Following those came cellphones, initially the size of bricks. Today we have these little pocket push-button or touch-screen gadgets which can do a million things beyond just letting you talk to someone else if you have their number. Progress.

But. What happens if your new-fangled telephone suddenly shows you a message on the screen which reads “Emergency Calls Only” and won’t let you dial any other number? How are you supposed to know what to do about that?

That’s what happened to me yesterday after my appointment. I wanted to call home to tell Mom the news and got that message. (I also got a tire pressure warning on the Mini; it never rains but it pours.) After struggling for a few minutes and retrying the phone a couple of times I concluded Mom would just have to wait to hear from me face-to-face.

There’s a T-Mobile store right next to the Safeway I usually go to, so I stopped there with the phone today and said effectively “Huh?” All the staff in that store today were women, which struck me as unusual, since there have typically been more male salespersons in there than female every time I’ve walked by. Anyway, one of them said “Oh. Take the cover off, take the battery out, and put it back in. Then turn the phone back on.” So I said “Reboot your phone? Really?” She said “Yes.”

Back when I was growing up there was no such thing as changing batteries in your phone. Either it worked or it didn’t. If it didn’t you called Ma Bell and they brought you a new phone. “Remove and replace the battery.” Sheesh.