As long as I’m
being grateful for assistance provided by my kids, I need to thank my
daughter-in-law, Angie, for her help with my various computer/phone problems. And, it’s not
just one time, but multiple times, especially recently.
Back in
November, my phone suddenly decided it didn’t want me to have access to my Outlook
email. I let it go for a bit, thinking it might correct itself. Hey, sometimes
those gremlins leave withoput being encouraged to do so. Angie spent at least an hour
or more on the phone with me, the end result being I had access to my email on
my phone.
At the same
time, Angie convinced me to get a new phone. It would only cost me ninety-nine
cents a month for thirty-six months, my current phone was three years old, and the
screen was cracked. It sounded like a good idea so I visited the AT&T store
only to learn the offer was available just online So, Angie ordered my new phone.
Angie works at
a school adjacent the Mountlake Terrace Pool. I went there one morning before
my exercise class which Angie thought was held next door. That wasn’t the case,
so she ended up doing most of the work in transferring all my information from
the old phone to the new. I would say 99.9% of the information moved over and
what didn’t wasn’t terribly important.
It took a while
for me to learn how to use my new phone as well as my old phone. During this
time, my Outlook email on my desktop computer decided it didn’t want to play
nice. It stopped giving me new emails and not sending out emails. All it said
was “send/receive error.” So frustrating.
Since I didn’t
want to bother Angie with this, I endeavored to fix it myself, all to no avail.
I took to getting my email via Xfinity, but there were problems with that,
i.e., it took forever to reach my emails and apparently my Outlook contacts were not available through Xfinity, so unless I had
memorized the recipient email or was replying to an email, my emails didn’t get
sent.
The most important
gift Angie gave me for Christmas was a coupon for IT assistance. I availed
myself of this offer this past weekend. Angie had a program which allowed her
to “drive” my computer once I had downloaded the same program. It’s really
weird to sit in my chair and watch my cursor move around the screen without my
doing anything at all.
The problem
wasn’t an easy fix. We were on the phone for more than an hour while Angie
tried a variety of fixes, most of which didn’t make sense to me at all. When
Outlook email suddenly began downloading, I said, “It’s working. What did you
do?”
Angie’s response was, “You were watching. You saw what I did.” \
"Yes," I admitted, "I was
watching, but it still doesn’t make any sense to me.”
I extended my
profuse thanks to Angie for correcting my problem. I was/am so grateful. I also
just had to ask, “So, this coupon, is it a one-time use only coupon or may I
use it again?” Lucky me, Angie’s response was that it had no expiration date
and I could use it more than once.
It is my hope I
don’t have to resort to additional requests; however, I made a notation on the
coupon of the date I received assistance. Depending on the number of notations on
that coupon at the end of 2024, Angie may deserve more than my profuse thanks…an
extra special Christmas gift perhaps.