And One VERY Unfrugal Thing.............

So.....some of you may remember my smart phone experience from a month or so back. My phone power button was stuck in permanently in the in position. So every time I powered up my phone, it immediately died. A vicious circle, and since it happened on a holiday weekend, next business day turned into four days.

Now, some might say that it was good to be off the phone for four days, but I had my calendar, my insurance card, my grocery list, and all kinds of things. A hundred dollars later, I am back.

Unfortunately my new technology disaster was not so easily handled. What's more, at the risk of having two tablets on my bill, I handled it completely differently. And I am still feeling frustrated. For readers who don't work on a tablet or Ipad, it's similar to a smart phone in that you press lightly down on the screen to copy or highlight. On Thursday, as I do regularly and often, I lightly pressed with my thumb (remember, I have a frozen shoulder, cannot open my own twist bottles and am generally a total weakling). Said screen promptly broke, making my tablet look like an inkblot.

For whatever reasons, I have not simply sucked it up and moved on in this case.  Call me picky, but I've actually caused damage to technology before. From my perspective, this was simply normal use, on a tablet I purchased last August. And I wasn't willing to pay the one hundred and fifty dollar insurance deductible.  But I needed a new tablet. And for the immediate future, I've decided not to purchase a new laptop.

So I may have compounded a less than frugal disaster to a much greater cost. My immediate solution? I got a new tablet-without calling the insurance company, and am now working on it. After chatting with the young man at the Verizon store, I made the emotional decision to get a new tablet and challenge Samsung directly regarding my old tablet.

This is not the frugal retiree's normal style, I admit it.  At least not with such a costly item. I've written food companies asking for coupons, complaining about products and more. Many, many moons ago my daughter and I took a train trip from Washington to the Carolinas. On the way home, said train broke down in the heat of South Carolina-where we were finally picked up by a bus who refused to stop and allow us to get beverages and got us home 24 hours later. I wrote a long letter and got a free ticket.

This kind of consumer action is not in my normal wheel box. But darn it, I paid six hundred dollars for the thing, and I used it completely as it was meant to be used. So I'm laying down on my proverbial sword, and contacting Samsung directly.

The worse case scenario is that they refuse to accommodate me and I have two tablets. If I fail to get any help, I will eventually fix the tablet and give it to one of my offspring (and probably pay part of the cost, so additional cost to me).  The best case scenario is that Samsung (or Verizon) helps me out with money or some other accommodation. In between those two options...who knows?

Now, admittedly I made this decision in the midst of graduation events, family event, dinners out, dog sitting and more. I am not at home, and have been a little out of sorts (I don't do well any more in large groups and my son and daughter in law have fifty best friends if they have two). At home, my choices would be different. But I'm traveling, working online, working on my book and could not afford to be without this for very long.

And so it goes.  Have you ever lost your mind like this?  Have I lost my mind? Feel free to share, but be kind.

Meanwhile, I've been to a graduation, out to dinner a few times, and spent time with family.  I'm now having a wonderful stay cation at my daughter and son-in-law's house. Tomorrow I'll hit the movies, I may meet a friend for lunch, but mainly I'm sitting on the patio, reading and playing with the dogs. It may not be a real vacation, but hey, it works for me.

Because my friends, I've made other plans. Summer plans, fall plans, even winter plans. And yes, I'll be heading to Arizona and the California coast.

And so it goes this lovely evening in Dallas...