Smart Phone; Smarter Buyer

Apple is both a phenomenal company and a bunch of ass hats.  So, a month ago, my iPhone 4s busted.  The top button (sleep/wake) ceased to depress.  Oh, it still worked, but in order to ensure that contact was made you had to press really hard and, and not reliably.  What to do with a broken phone?  Why sell it on Craigslist, of course.  Now, I understand that all sorts of unscrupulous transactions occur on Craigslist.  Hell, the personals are…to put it mildly…unsavory to a more refined individual than myself.

It took about 20 minutes from the original posting, and I got about 8 e-mails, some in English, some with poor typing or grammatical errors.  I picked the one where the request was written well and a reasonable price offer and called him up.  We’d meet the next day in a Target parking lot and make the exchange there.  Please note that I didn’t offer up that the phone was compromised in any way.  I indicated that it was “perfectly functioning.”  And, to tell the truth, the button worked, but obviously not in the way it was initially intended to.

Well, we met, he turned on the phone, checked everything out, and then on putting the phone into his pocket, pressed the sleep/wake button, and slipped it into his jeans, not noticing that it didn’t work (because he didn’t press firmly enough).  My heart was beating a mile a minute.  I’m not necessarily trying to take advantage, just hoping that he would continue to overlook the issue.  As he was counting out the agreed upon amount, his friend reminded him to check the cameras on the device, just to make sure they worked.  And, as you can imagine, that’s when the cat, out of the bag, sunk the deal.  Cameras work fine.  Button, upon its second test depression, did not.  Deal over.  They were no longer interested.  Done and done.

So, it serves me right.  But, so that I don’t have a repeat experience, I found an Apple-product repair place, which, when they repaired the phone, killed any kind of warrantee claim that can be made on the device, but whatever.  At least now the phone works as described, and I’m now in the process of finding another buyer.  However, now I have to buffer against the repair expense in my asking price.  Again, it serves me right…but I was this close!  Would you believe this close? [Maxwell Smart]

Barracuda

Jude this morning asked if we could listen to the song about the fish on our way to his daycare.  If you know me and my family, you’ll know that we see Phish often, so I asked him which song.  No dad, the song about the barracuda.  Wait, what?  Heart’s “Barracuda?”  Yeah dad, he says.  I open You Tube and of course the first link is to an audio stream of the song.  When the Wilson sisters finally get to its name sake in the lyrics, he goes “Yeah, there it is.” 

I’m impressed.  But, I shouldn’t be.  We’ve never really played the typical “children’s” music for him when he was growing up.  Instead, to satisfy his growing passion for music we played Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”, the 70’s theme from the Spider-man cartoon, and, of course, selections from the Phish catalog.  So, I shouldn’t be shocked when he asked for Ann and Nancy Wilson’s blistering 1977 chart-topper.  He must have heard it in the car on the radio.  Little sponge.  Good for you man.  Know what you like and grab it.

Hopefully this will blossom.  I would love it if he were able to respect music on all levels.  He seems to like the drums, and drumming.  He loves to sit in my lap while I play guitar…and deaden the strings.  And, mostly, I hope that he takes a page out of Sara’s and my book regarding live music.  We love music.  And, while we love many forms of music, we don’t like them all, but appreciate the skill regardless of the genre.  Imagine my surprise when we figured out that we’d been sitting in the Gospel tent at NOLA’s Jazz Fest for over an hour.  I’m not into Gospel, but that’s some powerful music.  But, I digress.  In short, I think that music made for children is, mostly, oversimplified crap.  There are exceptions of course, but there’s plenty of good music, both classic and modern, that a kid can wrap his brain around.  You can argue it, but between Rossini, Beethoven, CSNY, the Beatles, They Might Be Giants, Zeppelin, and many others, you can build an incredible, kid-friendly play list.

And, it’s rubbing off.  The other day, I caught Johanna walking over to where my guitar stand is, and gently plucking the strings.  With names like Jude and Johanna they better love music, and it’s just frigging awesome watching their eyes open up and enjoy something of quality without any bias or opinion or back knowledge.  Just absolutely awesome.    

For those playing the home game.

Some updates:

The gentleman who lives two doors down in the foreclosed house hasn’t been seen in just over a month.  So, I’m suspecting that he’s serving his time in a correctional facility.  That’s what was widely believed in the block’s social circle, and the most likely reason he hasn’t been around.  His “tenants” however come and go, take (poor) care of his dog, and move his truck from time to time to make it seem like he’s around.  Just an unsavory situation and I can’t wait until the bank gets its Federal money and kicks them out.

I left my car in Vernon, CT.  I know, not really a great Tony Bennett song title, but it works for me.  On Halloween, we got a call on our home answering machine indicating that they finally got the part in to completely replace the clutch.  Fantastic!  It’s only been a month.  I called back and left a message that I’d be coming the following Saturday to pick it up.  Saturday morning, and 2 ¾ hrs later, I arrive at the Subaru dealer in Vernon, CT.  I paid the deductible, and then told them that, before I leave for NJ, maybe they want to show me some certified pre-owned vehicles for a possible trade.  Of course, they were only too delighted.  I knew there were some on the lot as I had done my internet homework, and one listed seemed like it would be a decent fit for our family.  It turns out that I was right.  There was a 2010 Outback, stick, with less than 30k miles on it.  You know what happens next: 5 hrs of negotiation, back and forth of “I need it at this price” and “this is the best we can do” and “I can drive away from here in that car” and “I’ll talk to my manager”.  Finally, by 5:15pm (5 ½ hours after I got there), I was loading my new (old) car with my personal affects and getting on my way back to NJ.  At 28,000+ miles our family upgraded to a slightly larger 2010 silver outback.  Congrats to us.  F that old car. 

And, finally, in the world of Fantasy Football, I’m having a great time.  No, in the league I am the commissioner in I’m not doing well at all. While only out of 1^st place by 2 games (like the hapless Giants), I’ll need a miracle to get into the play-offs.  That said, it’s been great reporting out to the league every week of where they stand.  In my other leagues I’m faring better than this one, but thems the breaks (brakes?).  Please pray for Cam Newton and Ray Rice this week as I need them in a big way so I can grab another W and pull me closer to the play-offs.  Only 3 weeks of the regular season left.  Help me out RU Ray…no excuses!

Oh yeah, and last week I had strep.  Don't know where I got it.  Kids seem unaffected (knock on wood), and I'm finally feeling back to normal...well, at least, normal for me.  Worst part about it was that I really couldn't eat anything but soup.  Luckily, the Chinese restaurants had a bevy of options and I did that a bunch of nights.  Remember, Chinese people in China eat Chinese food every day...and they just call it food.  Food for thought.