I found this unpublished blog I wrote some 4 or 5 weeks ago. Proof-read and completed it and now I finally share it with the world! I leave the date as it was when I started this therapy of blogging!

I have not been spending a lot of money on myself lately, so when I got a big bonus check on June 16th I decided it was time for some me time. I've been carrying an original iPhone for a few years (the last two years- not my original original but a replacement original after misplacing the original original).
On a "fun filled weekend one day escape" with the missus, to Geneva Indiana and yet another covered bridge expedition, the iPhone "the first" found itself a way out of the handy belt carrier I got to keep from loosing it. To my surprise I had no clue where it might have ended up, and our day trip was at an end. I wanted to stay in a motel near the "drop site" but practical Jenni thought the dog would like to see us and have some business to do for us instead of to us.
The next day we retraced our steps in the sweltering daylight but to no avail. Then came the nightmare from Blackberry hell. I was told by a very helpful ATT phone sales rep I could use a Blackberry until the new 3G models hit then I could retrieve my sanity and exchange the Crackberry for the iPhone upgrade, since I was eligible for an upgrade. Yet another wondrous surprise awaited in the form of a denial that such a thing could be done. I had used my "upgrade" privileges up by buying the temporary Blackberry, and the rep got a nice fat commission for moving a less popular phone to another shill who believed that the representative should and would be honest. I talked to the VP of ATT before it was all done and he told me point-blank that he didn't care if I was unhappy or not, or that an employee in his company had intentionally lied and deceived me. He said that there was nothing that they cared to do for me. He also told me that the employees are told to move the Windows based Blackberry phones and accessories since there is a much greater profit margin on them than on the wildly successful and popular iPhones that Apple markets.
After four an a half months in the Blackberry Asylum I was indeed ready to be committed, that's when a glorious and wondrous thing occurred. By then my hatred of the butt dialing , pocket dialing, dashboard dialing monstrosity was legend in the circles I pass through, and as I came back from lunch I was created by Phil Gibson and one of his friends who just so happened to have an original iPhone he wanted (or more accurately his wife wanted) to get rid of. He had his eye on some item in the store that was around $200. I asked if I could buy that item and trade him for the cherished Holiest Holy Grail of Cellular communication devices and he agreed. The next day December 13th 2008, he returned with the sacred item and I made the deal. I had checked the employee price on the item he wanted (I still cannot remember what it was it was so inconsequential by comparison to my renewed happiness) and only got to take about $20 off before taxes and ended with a net gain of $6.40, but I did end up with the real prize.
That evening I walked back into my local ATT store. Inside, I looked for the friggin' bastard who sold me the Blackberry and a bill of goods, but he was off or somebody had taken him to secluded spot and beaten him so severely that he'd never be able to use a phone again let alone sell one to the unsuspecting (at least that was what I imagined). After a pleasant 15 minute wait for my turn at the podium with the power giver 20 something phone merchant I was set back on the righteous path. At home I had to wait to be reconnected after plugging the cherished machine into my Mac computer, within two hours I had my address book back (the BlackBerry never did properly sync with the superior Mac system) and within 2 1/2 hours after my reprieve from insanity, I had my preferences set, my alarms loaded and my life back.
What did I do with the Blackberry? I put it in a case and left it on my bookcase shelves to moulder, I refuse to inflict that curse of a communicator with anybody else. My breath dialing, butt dialing bump dialing breeze dialing days are over I got my life back and hopefully spared someone else the BB agony of ownership by not reintroducing that horror back into the collective Microsoft hive!
Chuck Pace ©2010
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