In A Bold Move...

...I dumped the ubiquitous black rectangle...

...for a snazzy new flip phone.

As expected, I've been kicked off my former employer's cell phone plan, so have to get my own now.

Unimpressed with the steadily growing size of today's boring smart phones - they now rival the original brick phone of the 80's for heft -

yes, that's the Al Gore, climate alarmist and self-proclaimed inventor of the interweb, transacting important business on his brick phone:  "Tipper?  Does my hair look ok?"

- I opted for something that fits easily in a pocket.

In spite of Mike Rowe's recent tiff with Puretalk, I signed up with them for $35/month and a free TCL Flip 2 phone.

They shipped it, we ported my old # from Verizon to Puretalk, and then found out the phone they shipped was DOA.

It powered up but little else; a white screen but no home page and unresponsive to keystrokes.

So back it went and I'm waiting for the replacement phone, due here early next week.

That means, for the first time in 3 decades, I'm cell phoneless!

Just kidding on the panic thing...it's been a week and a half so far, and it's actually kind of liberating.

More than half my life happened pre-cell phones, and somehow all seemed ok back then.

Not so surprisingly, all seems ok now, too.

There are a few websites I frequent that require 2-factor authentication, so yeah...that's kind of a temporary pain.

But other than that, life has not screeched to an abrupt halt.

I'm probably a little more tuned in to what's happening around me, less distracted by nonsense emanating from the palm of my hand.

The plan is to continue this trend when I get my flip phone up and running.

Despite its retro/throwback appearance, it does have wifi and bluetooth, but a relatively small screen which should discourage doomscrolling...

"My wife keeps yelling about a fire or something, but I know I saw a video of a cat fighting a cobra on here somewhere..."

...through the sewage system known as the internet.

Hey, don't look at me like that; could have been worse.

I still have an old Nokia kicking around here somewhere...

...was tempted to dust that off again.

In the meantime, if you must get hold of me, you can try calling the operator and ask to be connected to WOrth 8 3062.

Let me know if I answer.

I was about 8 years old...

Christmas, 1964.  I'm the handsome one.

...and living in Pennsylvania back then.

That's gonna do it for this week.

I lack the time, emotional energy and intestinal fortitude to delve into the depressing world of politics.

Losers like Swalwell, Angie Nixon, Newsom, Schumer, Jeffries and the rest of the depraved D's will have to wait for another day to be pilloried.

Right now I have to descend into the woods to put up a chicken wire fence to keep some huskies from attacking and killing our cats.

¹⁴ If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

    - II Chronicles 7:14

LORD, let it be so.

later, mcm fans...