If you don’t know any more about a cell phone than I do, never try to do something with one unless you are absolutely certain you know what you are doing when you punch go.
Monday I accidently deleted a text message, googled “how to get a lost text message back” and Google told me what to do. I did what Google said do and in a flash I was without a phone. Have you ever felt the flush of your face when you know you did something totally stupid?
I do! I really do now!
So I told the all powerful Google what I did and begged Google to help me out. I again did what I was told to do and the message that appeared on my phone after I had followed all the directions to the “T” said “enter the verification code sent to your other phone.”
I have only one phone and it is the one I had just killed. It is my work phone, my pocket computer, my house phone, my date book, my telephone book, my map, my photo album, you name it, it is in there. Or, was in there!
What to do? What to do?
I know, ask Google!
I did once again. I really don’t think Google knew the answer, but Google tried, and I tried what Google said to try.
No luck.
So, I asked Google in a different kind of way, hoping the internet know-it-all would better understand my dilemma and choose to take pity on my poor soul.
This time Google said to tell the phone to call a trusted number with the verification code. I wanted to punch Google at that point and tell Google if I had access to the trusted number which is the cell phone number I wouldn’t be asking Google anything about this particular situation to begin with.
But, as if Google were a live, breathing, human being, I opted out of being rash and thought it better to be nice to Google at least until I got what I wanted...access to the backup of my phone!
So I talked to Google some more and reset, and reset, and reset, and entered the strangest Wi-Fi password in the world that hooks me up to Google’s domain here at the office more times than I liked. Then I punched something, twice, when it asked for that verification code the last time and the phone flickered and blinked and commenced to restoring itself.
I have no idea what I did, so if you find yourself in a like predicament don’t call me — that’s assuming the phone is working again and you know what happens when you assume...
In the mean time, my face was still feeling kind of flush, my heart might have been palpitating a bit, and since I had yet to begin a column for this week while the slow process of restoring was in the process I stumbled upon a topic for today as you can see.
In addition, I remembered that I forgot to set the thermostat on the air conditioner at the lake house where we spent the weekend, so I logged on to it from my computer and took care of that. Amazing, I can turn my A/C to heat and back, and set the temperature to anything I like from my computer without having to ask Google a single question. I can, when my phone knows who I am, look at the patio to see if anyone is wandering around in the backyard, or look and see if the neighbors are parked under the carport when we are gone. But I can’t for the life of me get into my own account for a backup without a second verifiable device when I have screwed up big time.
To add insult to injury, now a couple hours after the big mistake, the phone is still restoring, and updating, and from what I can tell, so far, the lost text message is still lost, plus I had to re-delete over 400 old emails.
To my surprise, however, I did get a text message back from April 3, 2020 when my wife told me she would have to reschedule a doctor’s check up writing, “gotta come in when this blows over.”
That’s the pandemic she was referring too. Blow over! Don’t we wish it would have turned out that simple.
