That MacGyver Feeling – My Droid Is My New Swiss Army Knife
Yes, I love technology and techno-stuff. I even have a technical degree (EE), but until 2 months ago, I was a bit dated on the cellphone front. I loved my old Blackberry and didn’t really see a reason to change. Sure other phones could take and receive pictures and had cool apps, had Swipe keyboards, voice recognition and turn-by-turn navigation, but I was fine. Wow! Was I missing out. I finally used my “new-every-two” Verizon plan (that was 4 years old) and got a Droid-X.
I love, love, love my Droid and there is no going back…..
In the last two days my Droid has saved the day in simple ways that make me think of my cell phone as a type of high-tech Swiss Army Knife. And I’ve been so simply pleased I wanted to share. Here’s what happened….
1) Monday, 7:00am: My husband and I own a B&B in Stowe, VT and I decided to drive up and spend a few days enjoying the snow. Overnight we had gotten about 8“ of very heavy/wet accumulation. We’re a bit rural up here and only have Internet access via satellite. Let’s be clear, that’s slower than dial-up on a good day. I needed to email two files that were on my laptop. Wouldn’t you know…no internet. My home network was fine, but outside the walls of our house, there were only cows.....no satellite signals. Clouds and snow have that effect on satellite service sometimes…or maybe it was the mountain of snow on the roof covering the dish. Either way….no service.
I walked outside to look at the Dish on the roof…who was I kidding - I wasn’t going up there. Hum…my Droid’s cellular coverage was excellent (Verizon). I had already checked email. The Droid has Wi-Fi…my laptop has Wi-Fi….let’s talk! I copied the files into my laptop’s shared network folder, connected my phone to the home network and viola, I copied the files to my phone. I composed the email through the Gmail app on my phone (which let me choose which of my 3 Gmail accounts to send from), attached the docs and out they went. Cool! I guess I could have also activated the internet hot-spot service on my phone by going to the Verizon Wireless site through my phone’s browser and anteing up $25…..but my MacGyver-way was free.
2) Tuesday, 9:30am: (Still snowing by the way). I decided to venture outside to shovel the walkway. As I opened the door that connects the main part of the house to the unheated vestibule, I hear a “ping” sound, followed by the (very heavy) door unhinging at the top and leaning toward me. The “ping” was the hinge pin falling. Dang! Who installed that hinge upside down?
The falling door was a reclaimed 7 foot tall wood-framed super heavy item that hearty Vermonters built 100 years ago…I think the hinges were from the same timeframe. There was enough torque on the lower hinge that it snapped. Holy C**p! At least I was able to hold the door without it hitting the floor (or me). With no door, it is kinda like having the fresh Vermont air blowing right into the house. Hello oil delivery truck.
Eight fresh inches of snow on the driveway meant I wasn’t going out to find new hinges on my own. Husband is traveling on business this week, so it’s just my MacGyver phone, the baby, three dogs, a few cows, and me…still no internet. Ahhh, the MacGyver phone you say. I unscrewed the bottom/broken hinge and managed to get the top hinge reconnected and the door propped into place so the brisk air didn’t blow in (a true video moment).
I called Chris, a carpenter we’ve used, who said he could try to find a replacement if I could send him hinge dimensions and a photo. But…Chris didn’t have an email address or internet service (Really? No email. It’s 2011!). What he did have was a cell phone that could receive pictures. Hum. If I could measure the hinge and snap a picture with my phone, we were in business.
But….no measuring tape or ruler was in my entire house! Argh! I figured someone had an app for that.
In 30 seconds I downloaded a free tape measure app, got the dimensions of the hinge and snapped a picture. I image-searched Google and, “shazam”, there was my hinge in a store that specialized in reproduction door parts. I text messaged the pic and dimensions to Mr. No-Email-Carpenter and he’ll be here tomorrow morning at 9:00 with a new hinge! Hurrah!
I wonder what challenges my MacGyver phone and I will conquer tomorrow?
Tell me some of your SmartPhone stories. I’m sure there are lots of them……and even some related to Real Estate! LOL.
Caroline DeVore
REALTOR®
108 Ponemah Road, Amherst, NH 03031
Phone: (603) 673-9797
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