In England we started out with two lap-top computers, two up-to-date smart phones, two Nooks, and a camera. We had access to the dining room table, and there we set ourselves up with converters, chargers, computers, etc, etc.
Computers. One morning we came down, and Julianne's little computer (in the foreground of this photo) was gone. Both smart phones were gone, too. The charging cords were gone, and one of the converters. The police were kind but not encouraging. We were unlikely ever to see these things again. The only consolation was that the thief probably got nothing out of it, especially the American phones.
Lucky for us, there is insurance. Even luckier, Julianne had virtually all her crucial information in the Cloud, not on the computer. Unlucky for us, however, no satisfactory replacement computer was available to Julianne there in London on one day's notice.
This was in our last week in London. We were flying to Dusseldorf, going from English plugs to European plugs, to various languages - into the unknown, in computer terms. What to do?
Slightly panicked, Julianne ended up with a replacement computer carrying Windows 8, a wild and crazy operating system. She began to go rather nuts trying to tame it and make it functional for her. Never has worked out. She's having her son bring her a new lap-top from the US. He'll take this one back and deep-six it, or something.
Phones. We had Nexus 5, a Google phone with T-Mobile service. That's what was stolen. Nexus 5 is not sold in Europe. We bought new copies of the old phones from T-Mobile in California, and had them shipped overnight to Julianne's sister, who re-shipped them overnight to our hotel in Dusseldorf. "Overnight" was an exaggeration, but they did arrive at the last minute, and we hugged them to our bosom. Not that they were working yet.
Getting them to work involved parking our van in Belgian and French rest areas with internet connections and calling, re-calling, talking for hours, for days, with various T-Mobile people in Texas, in Arizona, in Arkansas, in Missouri, in California. We flummoxed those people a lot, but they got us more or less up and running.
In the long run, the problems we've had all over Europe have not had to do mainly with T-Mobile, but with their European partners. T-Mobile has arrangements with local intermediate companies that provide cell towers. These companies, sadly, even in Rome not to mention western rural France, are just not up to standard. So it goes.
We also have direct satellite connection for times when cell phone networks are down. Oh yes?
Well, not always. Sometimes it seems the satellites themselves are somewhere else, over Australia perhaps, and we just have to wait for them to come back over the horizon. Satellites rise and set on some schedule that leaves the occasional hole. Particularly over France. We've been fussing and fussing with these phones and finally we are more or less used to how we can or can't get along.
There seems to be a meme going around that Europe is better off in internet terms than the US. Really? Have the people pushing that idea ever tried getting a connection in Bayeux? The Po River valley? At bus-stops in Rome even? I thought not.
Camera. There we were in Dusseldorf about to embark on 2 weeks of van camping, and my camera decided it was tired. It didn't want to extend its lens any more, and therefore nothing would work on that camera.
Old camera on left, recent on right, and brand new in center
Note pink cast - that's from the phone's camera
Is it the rule of threes? I went right out to a big shopping center (read: huge) and found a camera, the little Nikon on the right of the picture. Cheaper than I wanted. Does funny things with color. Sometimes I was amused, but sometimes it just made me annoyed.
So here in Rome I took the old camera out of its wrapping, thinking to take it to a camera store for fixing if possible. Lo, it began to work again. What is that?
That was the same day my watch started working again. I had got it in August at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, but it quit about 3 weeks ago. I thought, battery. Put it aside while we had visitors. Pulled it out last Friday, took it to a jewelry store, gave it to the jeweler, he said, nothing wrong here. I told him he had magic hands (a good laugh), but actually it's another electronic puzzle, isn't it? Watch is still working.
Julianne points out that her watch is working, too. Mine is on the left, hers on the right. We had a new battery for hers, though, in London. She loves her watch.
So then I had my old camera and my newish camera. Ha! Both cameras stopped working on Monday. That's it. No fooling around this time, just get a new camera. Did.
I'm just assuming it'll work fine - battery being charged
The latest wow in little cameras, even records in RAW format
which I now must learn to use.
Feeling very cheery. Now have working camera, working watch, working phone, working computer. Our Nooks both work, too, never a problem with them. How long can it last?
Two working Nooks, knock wood
by Nancy, with trepidation
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