Before you start thinking that a credit card company offered me lots of bonus miles to promote them, this column has nothing to do with plastic rectangles. Nor does this have anything do with the Alamo since that event did not happen in Nebraska. This little post has everything to do with the item I think I can no longer live without: my cell phone.
Just a decade ago, we did not even have our own cell phone. I think my husband had one for work. Then a tornado passed quite close to our Hickman home. Right before, I had been driving home with our 18 month old from a graduation party. We decided that being able to stay in touch could be a good thing. After that, my parents passed down their old flip phone to us. Of course the fact that I frequently forgot it at home was not especially helpful.
I still remember several falls ago when my husband convinced me that we should upgrade to a smart phone. Pretty sure he regrets that decision at times now (sorry, Honey!) Suddenly the world was really at my finger tips – kind of a fun thing for a homeschool mom. Our Android was definitely an upgrade, but the last few months of ownership, the phone would hardly hold a charge for more than a few hours. Not exactly the most reliable on even short trips since we could never get the car charger to work.
When my husband switched jobs this spring, he needed to get his own phone. He convinced me that I needed to upgrade at the same time, so that we could have the exact same phone. Easier to learn and to help each other. We walked in to get simple Samsungs and walked out with I-phones. Now I am really not going back.
I really like my I-phone. Using my apps on this phone is SO much better. With my Android, they would seem to stutter. I am probably on my phone too much now. Okay – I am on my phone too much. This is an area I need to moderate – we all have room for growth, right? Unfortunately I still have a charging issue. But for a different reason now. The camera.
One of my favorite pictures from last week!
Taking pictures with my I-phone is now my preferred method of photography. Especially when I use the HDR setting. The pictures are amazing! As you can imagine, once you take 100+ pictures, which is what I can easily do on an outing, the battery no longer seems to like you.
Last week, we went to a small Nebraska town. Sure enough, by the end of the morning, I had very little battery. And SO many pictures I still wanted to take. Thankfully I did have our car charger. When I went to go pick up our lunch, I was able to charge it a little bit. But I knew I needed more. So I just might have left the key in the ignition, letting the phone keep charging while I grabbed the food. Thank goodness for small towns! Although I must admit I still prayed that both the car and the phone would still be there when I returned! Oh the predicaments we get into ..
I think I have finally learned a few key charging lessons!
1) Keep the phone on the car charger the whole way to our destination, even if the phone is already charged.
2) Bring the outlet plug-in charger along. Maybe they will have a movie we can watch where plug-ins are nearby, so that the phone can charge while we learn!
3) Even though it is bulky. I need to bring my Nikon along when we have several destinations. With extra batteries of course. I missed some of the pictures that I wanted to take because the phone was almost out of batteries. Plus I may actually need to use my phone for its originally intended purposes. Having a phone full of great pictures is a bit useless if I cannot get a hold of someone because the phone has died.
Our charging station. Simple now. Probably will be more completed once we add a few kid phones. But that will be many years from now, much to our kids chagrin!
Probably I should check into getting one of the solar chargers that they have now! How about you? How do you charge on?
Been thinking of upgrading, so good advice. Now to figure out how to use it wisely. 🙂