One Week Later

A week ago today I fell hard on my right arm, which I described here. My elbow and forearm are better and changing colors by the day. Currently it looks like one of those beautiful purple sunsets - a mix of beige, green, and purple. I sufficiently worried my in-laws in India. Today I resumed my yoga and some weight-lifting, so all is fine.

Given my injury and somewhat monotonous weather -- cold, no fresh snow -- I've been encountering few interesting things on my walks to blog about. Instead, I've been catching up on indoor activities. A dozen boxes of 35 mm slides rest on one of our closet shelves. As technology zooms along, what does one do with all these photos? Is it worth getting at least some scanned into digital format? Until recently I could drop off slides at a local camera shop for this conversion. Now most of those shops have shuttered, put out of business by changing technologies and internet-based shopping for digital cameras.

Someone recommended ScanMyPhotos.com. Do I trust sending original 35 mm photos by mail to a place in Irvine, California? They in turn may ship my order somewhere else. After more calling about, I found a relatively local business (Rivers Photo and Digital) that will scan for $1.25 per slide. That seems okay. I will try them and report back on my experience.

My other chore was to set up an online account for my VerizonWireless prepaid mobile phone. I switched from a $35 plus taxes per month plan, which I barely used, to the prepaid plan. If you just need a cell phone for emergencies (like falling hard on your elbow), this seems like the way to go. So, I've called the VerizonWireless 1-800 number three times and each time I eventually get a human to help me, but I have no idea how I finally reached a human. I can not replicate it.

These 800 numbers are exceedingly frustrating, forcing you to click through endless, circular menus, without a clear way to reach a human. Always amazing how communications companies are terrible at communicating! There must be a secret code. Maybe just hitting a certain number of keys finally sends you to some nice person, like Mary in Tucson, who I finally reached. Mary answered all my questions, set up my account, and we talked about the weather -- 70F in Tucson, 25F here. That might explain her good mood.

Now I am ready for more outdoor winter adventures!