The Wake Up Ping
WARNING: It’s ‘nother first world blues rant.
I don’t usually keep my phone near me when I’m in bed. Had a lifetime in the military, along with my time in marketing. People always wanted me immediately available.
Well, no longer! It’s one of the declarations of independence I made when I retired from all that work stuff. The phone stays in the other room.
Except, yesterday, it didn’t. I wasn’t feeling well. My car was in the shop for routine maintenance. I was waiting for them to call or text to tell me it was ready. So I had the phone on my nightstand.
They called about four-ish, asking if they could keep it overnight. No, nothing major found; they were just short-handed and overscheduled.
Shrugging it off, I agreed, sure. “Call me in the morning when it’s ready.”
I went back to sleep, off and on, and forgot about the phone.
Until six AM this morning.
The phone pinged with a message. In irritation, I thought, sisters. That was more a matter of my mood than anything. My sisters have habits of getting up early and sending texts early. They’re on the east coast of the US, so they’re three hours ahead of me. Texts that they’re sending at 8 AM are pinging on my phone at 5 AM.
But it wasn’t my sisters.
Nor was it the car repair shop.
No, it was Google Health, formerly known as Fitbit.
Google Health pinged me awake at 6 AM to tell me that I didn’t have a good night of sleep.
Sure; that made total freaking sense.
As Mom often grumbles, “Those so and so’s.”
A Bulb Tale
More first world blues!
I barked out a laugh.
My wife absently asked, “What’s so funny?”
We were in the home office, each quietly doing computer things. Sitting back, I turned my chair to face her. “You know how that garage door light bulb went out?”
The background: there’s a light that goes on when you press the button to raise or lower the garage door. It was no longer going on.
She nodded, waiting for me to drop the other shoe.
“Well, when you were out the other day, I replaced the bulb. That didn’t fix it, though.”
“Oh,” my wife said.
“Anyway.” I gestured at the computer. “I figure, must be something else. So I’m researching online. One of the things I came across was that I should use a light bulb specifically made for garage door lifts.”
My wife frowned. “What?”
I laughed. “Exactly. We’ve lived here twenty years. I think I replaced the bulb one before. I replaced our Half Moon Bay garage door light one time. I’ve never bought a special bulb for it.”
“Why would the garage door need a special bulb?” my wife asked.
“It’s supposed to be ‘more rugged’.”
She and I both laughed. “I think that’s crap,” she said.
“I agree,” I replied.
We returned attention to our computers.
More First World Blues
My wife lost her phone.
So, I’m changing information in online accounts. The procedures were all originally all set up for us do online — technological DIY, if you will — back in the Internet’s infancy. Since then, the net has been terrorized by security threats and thefts.
Anway, the saga begins…
I log into my account. Navigate to my profile. Go to the phone numbers. Try to change the number.
Can’t!
Because I have already added that number.
I attempt to delete that number.
Can’t!
In order to do that, they want to text me a security code on the number I’m attempting to delete because the number is no longer valid.
Yet, that’s listed as the primary contact. I can’t move the other name up. It has a strange, inexplicable logic to it.
No other options are available online. My only choice is to call them and explain it all.
It’s a technological catch 22.
A Windy Night
This post is part of SoCS, promoted by Linda Hill:
After drinking beer, he got his wind up, passed some wind, and then ran like the wind when he realized he was late for his flight to the Windy City.
First World Blues: The Phone Saga
I entered the house.
My wife looked at me with hope. “Did you find my phone?”
“What?” I asked.
She explained. She’d called and left messages. She’d lost her phone.
My phone never rang.
After cursing that, I examined my settings. The phone should have rung. It’s possible it rang and I didn’t hear it.
Anyway…
My wife lost her phone. She thought it happened at the coffee shop. I called them to ask if they had found it. They looked all over as I called the number.
“No, sorry,” Katie told me.
We drove over to the coffee shop to look for ourselves. No sign of the phone.
Then I got a phone call from her phone. Children were making a prank call.
I tried talking to them. I offered a reward. I texted them with an offer to buy the phone back.
No response.
After two days of trying, my wife accepted, the phone was gone. She needed to cancel the service for that number.
She called the support center.
A bot answered. It explained it was a bot and asked her what her problem was.
My wife explained the situation.
“Hold on,” the bot said. A few minutes later, it came back on the line. “Can you explain your problem again please?”
My wife did.
“Please hold,” the bot said. “I’ll be right back.”
The back came back and suggested, “Turn your phone off and on.”
“No,” my wife replied. She explained again: she did not have her phone. Her phone was lost. She needed to cancel the service.
“Hold on,” the bot replied. It went away. My wife listened to hold music. The bot came back: “Turn your phone off and on.”
“That won’t work,” my wife answered. “Let me speak to a human.”
The human had her sorted in thirty seconds. If she had spoken to the human in the first place, the call would have been under a minute.
Instead, she was forced to endure having a bot tell her, “Turn your phone off and on.”
AI.
Right.
Friday’s Theme Music
Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, July 24, 2026.
It’s a hot, sunny day. 85 F now, 95 later. But the air is free from smoke.
Fasted last night so I could go get some blood tests done today. So then went off and ate breakfast after that was completed.
Then the morning got a little complicated. My wife lost her cell phone. Children found it and wouldn’t return it. Yes, rewards were offered. She didn’t have the phone locator turned on, a choice she made years ago but now regrets. She also didn’t set up phone security. Fortunately, she used it for nothing except texting, games, and phone calls.
BUT —
It was the primary number for receiving security texts for different accounts. So I’ve been going through the very painful process of changing that number with several companies. It isn’t just ‘log in and fix it’; it’s log in — or, call us. Give us your name, DOB, address, social, UserID. Now, take a photo of both sides of your driver’s license. And a selfie. Now hop on your right leg three times, turn in one complete circle, spit toward the sun, and declare, “New phone number” three times.
Classic first world blues.
It’s pretty apparent these days that Trump’s shallow thinking has exhausted its ability to come up with new ideas. Deeply into repeating himself, Trump is inflicting new tariffs on us (even though the US is projected to refund $85B in tariffs and our customs duties receipts are negative $26B in June) and trying to add his name to another building as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Not surprising, given Trump’s flat ideas and bullying leadership style, Trump is losing staff. Those he chose who were approved by the Senate are escaping while they can. Could be that they know that the mid-terms are looking like another Trump disaster — like:
- Trump’s Iran war
- Affordability
- The Epstein ballroom
- Trump’s new ‘Air Force 1’
- The Epstein files
- The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
- The growing measles cases — now more than all of last year, with five months left in the year.
No worries; he’s not.
We’re becoming the land of the poor, sick, and broken under Trump. According to a Harris Poll, 95% of U.S. adults believe the country is facing a severe affordability crisis.
Still living in a fantasy, Trump thinks the next president will have it great.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
The other way that we can take this quote is that Trump made another Freudian slip. He’s actually acknowledging that he’s doing a shit job, and that anyone after him will look much better in comparison.
Given his declining physical appearance and the way he often babbles, I wonder if he’ll be alive to see the next Oval Office inhabitant.
Maybe Trump will pull a Mitch McConnell. That might be even why the GOP isn’t trying very hard to prove Mitch is still alive; they’re testing the waters to do the same with Trump.
Today’s song came to me as I was driving and thinking, returning home from my lab visit. I had the radio off, thinking about my dreams from last night. With my daily routine shifted, I thought, “Come up for air.” From that, “Miracle Mile” by Cold War Kids began playing in my morning mental music stream.
May the season’s winds carry you to a happy, healthy, and safe future.
Cheers
Wednesday’s Theme Music — Wild Claims
Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
Blue sky, sunshine, and high temperatures have arrived. 86 F now, gonna hit 99 F with a heat index of 105.
The sky is clear of smoke today. Our major threat, the East Evans Creek Fire, now 12 days old, is 26% contained. That’s good news but it’s a tragedy for the land, vegetation, and animals.
“The American Prospect” has a story about the ‘Freedom Fuel’ that made the White House so happy a few weeks ago.
Circle back. Knowing how MAGA Trump thinks, a gas station chain calling itself Freedom Fuel opened up gas stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Knowing how to get Trump’s attention, and some free publicity, the gas was priced at $3.47 a gallon, the 47 cent part being in honor of Trump, which makes total economic sense.
Trump publicly pumped the gas station and its price, even though the price went up to $3.57 after a few days. He then crowed about how he promised gas prices were going to come down fast.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
That was then. This is now. “The American Prospect” and others are shedding light on how that low gas price of $3.57 came about.
Freedom Fuel now averages $3.92 a gallon, and isn’t the cheapest gas around any longer. Meanwhile, thanks to Trump’s new attacks on Iran and other factors, the national average for a gallon of gas is again $4.
Classic Trump math: up is down. More is less.
Trump is always making wild claims. His war with Iran would be over quickly, in weeks — back in March.
Prescription drug prices were coming down over 1,000% — financially and medically impossible. He would cut energy prices immediately, if not by 12 months, certainly by 18.
That was two years ago.
Now — still — Trump keeps going on about election fraud. Has to be fraud, because he doesn’t understand how it works.
No evidence, of course, exists to support this election fraud fantasy, any more than his claims about the war ending back in March or that drug prices were coming down 1,000%, or that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He made fantastic claims about that, too, changing the damage from 250 feet to 300 yards.
How does anyone ever believer him about anything?
Today’s music circulating in the morning mental music stream is “Your Wildest Dreams” by The Moody Blues. Justin Hayward wrote the song while thinking back on a first love. But My Neurons, oblivious as they are, took ‘the wildest dreams’ aspect in reflection to Trump’s ongoing wild claims.
I hope your day is calm and fun, relaxing and healthy. Stay safe, wherever you are.
Cheers
