I Love Technology - Old Technology

My dad got the Clie for his first year teaching English in China. He didn't use it as much as he thought he might. When he got home the next summer, he was constantly asking me questions and I was every time answering with,"Got it right here in my Palm" which was a Handspring Visor Edge. Thanks for that, Dan. So anyway, a while later, my dad decided the Clie would have a better home with me.

I love this little machine. LOVE it. I have my Christmas Card list in here. I have lists of stuff I like and funny quotes. I have games, of course. I have my calendar for several months. I have phone numbers and email addresses. I have recipes. It is SO GREAT. This thing can take still pictures and cute little video clips. It has a voice recorder and mp3 player. It has the scriptures and hymnal on it (words only, thanks). So much stuff can fit on here. It is really awesome.

But I did something bad. When we moved here, two and a half years ago, I didn't have a computer hooked up for three weeks. The Clie battery, bless its little heart, tried valiantly to keep the device going. When I finally got my computer moved in and set up, the battery could only hold enough charge to run the device for 15 or 20 minutes. I got real worried about it and stopped using it, so I wouldn't lose it altogether. I kept it in the charging cradle. But of course, this caused something catastrophically ironic: I lost it altogether. I haven't used the device for two years. I have been wishing and yearning to be able to use it and rediscover my data. Sweet data, I love you!

I went to the battery store a couple months ago. Six months ago. They wanted me to prepay the 40 bucks so they could order the battery and have it in two weeks later. I waffled. Forty bucks! Maybe I can get it cheaper online. Meh, nothing doing. I looked one time and got discouraged.

So finally I remembered to bring it with me and went again into the battery store. It's up by Sam's Club. The guy was duly impressed by my little device and good news! they actually had the battery right there, in stock. One battery. I paid it with 32 dollars cash and walked out with my battery and the following piece of information: the back is not soldered on . The battery is not soldered on. The back is just screwed on and the battery clips in.

I came home. I unscrewed the back. I unclipped the old battery. I clipped in the new battery. I screwed the back on. IT WORKED. IT TURNED ON. I was so delighted. DELIGHTED. I had synched up one last time before taking out the old battery, so I just synched again with the new one and here were all my glorious data back! Hooray! A christmas miracle!!

I rediscovered some videos of Eric hitting Jules in the face with snow and Eric age 5 reading from the scriptures. There were some fun audio files of Eric age 4 reciting his address and phone number. My whole dang Christmas Card list was back. It was the greatest day of my life, during the month of June. I LOVE having my Clie back. My only regret is not having done it two years ago.