Bruiser Takes on a "Rail Trail"

On a recent Sunday morning Bruiser (my old mountain bike) and I went for a ride. I am able to connect to an old railroad line not too far from my home. I rode out east of town on city streets, but came back toward home on this rail trail. I have yet to see how far the trail goes east of town, but know it goes at least for a few miles. Where the rail line enters Wichita, the city planners have been making improvements and even paving parts of the line, but it isn't all finished yet.

This is the first time I have posted a bicycle video to the blog, but not the first time I have taken a video with the possible intention of posting it. Last year I took a number of videos from my bicycle, but never posted them and eventually deleted them. I would hold the phone in my hand and ride and talk about silly little stuff. Yeah, you ought to be scared about listening to someone talking to themselves, and most of those old videos were pretty bad.

Well, this one is probably not much better, but at least the length is manageable. Uploaded from iPhone to YouTube and then linked from the blog. We'll eventually see how this actually works.

Ride On and Carpe Diem, my friends,

Jimbo

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Blogger Stats

After about a year and a half of blogging, I admit that I had hardly ever looked at the Google Stats in the blogger program. I was amazed. First surprise: One of my posts last year around Thanksgiving, regarding Native American Spirituality, is the most viewed, by far, of the more than 100 posts I have done. And that post is not even about scootering, the primary theme of my blog. Second surprise: Where the viewers are coming from. The USA and Canada does not surprise me. The United Kingdom is a distant third, but many of the other countries surprised me. Oh, it's just a few from other countries, but was interesting. Russia? ..... Really? South Korea? VietNam? A few european countries were represented. Spain, The Netherlands, Germany. I found the statistics on page hits to be very interesting. I guess that I always assumed that the number of comments received was a good indicator of how much my blog was read. And I guess I always knew that some people read it, but didn't leave comments. I faithfully read a lot of blogs, but do not always leave comments. But now I realize, even more so, that number of comments is not really very indicative of readership. I love comments on my blog. Sometimes they are just as much fun as the post itself. And I like to pester people by commenting on their blogs. But sometimes it just becomes a matter of available time, not enough of it. Then another question is raised. How many if those page hits are my own? I frequently look at my own blog to check for comments. Some days I will do this many times, other days not at all. I guess I could click on my blog more often and artificially increase my own hits, but what's the point of that. Back to that Native American Spirituality post, though. I suspect that a reference or link in Google Images might have something to do with the number of hits to my blog. I had 'borrowed' a few images from there to use in the post. I am guessing that somewhere in Google Images that there may be a link to my blog. I really have no idea how this might work, and don't really care, but to me it is the only possible reason why that post has had so many hits. It certainly can't be from motorcycle or scooter enthusiasts. The number of hits is more than 4 times the number on the next highest post. Go figure. What this all means? I haven't a clue! I had a very excellent Statistics professor in college that said on the first day of class, "You can make statistics say anything you want them to if you just play around with the numbers long enough." I have never forgotten what he said and I think about that statement a lot, particularly when looking at television or other advertisements. Sometimes numbers can be very misleading. So maybe the Blogger Stats aren't that important. There may be certain interesting results, but in the long run I don't think it will change whatever modus operandi I have for the blog. I just enjoy blogging.

Exactly What is a Vincati?

Book Report

Big Sid's Vincati

I had seen this book in a catalogue or two, and sort of wondered about it, but the interest seemed only passing at the time. Some of my family members think I can be dangerous in a bookstore, as evidenced by this t-shirt I received one Christmas. In an effort to alleviate the fact that books seem to be trying to take over all of the space in our home, my wife and I both now own a "Nook", the Barnes and Noble electronic book reader. Big Sid's Vincati is the first book I read on my Nook. It's not a long book. I read it in about 2 1/2 days. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. In 1950 a Vincent motorcycle was priced at about $1,000. Big Sid and some of his friends were very interested in possibly owning one despite the price. Big Sid was an accomplished motorcycle mechanic, specializing in high performace engines. Sid and his friends felt that the machine was quite capable, with a few high performance modifications, of performing like the machine that Rollie Free had used to set a land speed record. But the Vincent was difficult to find. Sid and his friends said that they would travel the corners of the nation if they had to, to find one. The book is largely about the relationship between Sid and his son. Late in Sid's life, when Sid had experienced some recent health problems, the son concocts the idea that he and Sid should attempt to build a "Vincati". The Vincati is a motorcycle using a Vincent engine, with a Ducati frame. It was meant to be a project where Sid and his son could spend some quality time together. Big Sid asked his son, "Are we really going to build this Vincati?" His son responded, "Come Hell or High Water!" Sid's son did not exactly follow along in Sid's footsteps in life. The son loved motorcycling, but Sid once said to him that "You may be a good college professor, but you are a lousy mechanic". Now statements like this from Sid would and did anger his son, but knowing that as Sid was getting older, that their time together was becoming less and less. Eventually the son would respond by saying " That's me and don't I know it!" Their relationship at times was rocky, like a lot of parents and children, but eventually they became more comfortable with each other. The effort to assemble the machine had some difficulties, some mechanical. some personal. At one point the son wondered whether all the effort was really worth it. After all it was just an object. The son wondered how the motorcycle could have taken possession of him, but eventually decided that he was already and forever had been possessed by the motorcycle. They didn't take an easy road on the assembly, always insisting on the best quality high performance parts. But eventually the machine was finished. At one point Sid's son had to say, "Damn it Dad, I'm not a kid anymore!" I recommend this book highly. I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. There was just enough technical information to be interesting, yet not boring. And the descriptons of the relationships between the characters in the book was superb. While reading the book, I thought many times about my own father. At other times while reading, I thought about my own son and daughter. I love it when a book makes me think.

Sunday Morning Thoughts

It is supposed to rain and then change to snow today, Super Bowl Sunday, and expecting maybe 5-6 inches by tomorrow evening. We'll see. May not be riding for a few days. Didn't ride at all this week. Snow first of the week, and took awhile to melt away. I decided to make coffee.

My thoughts turned to a couple of events of the past week. First, Conch had posted a link on his blog to an article about money and influence peddling in congress. Second, the author of that article was on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS the next night along with a Libertarian. Then finally, again on TV , last night was the renowned Sarah Palin speaking to the tea party convention in Nashville.

Hmmmm. Lots to digest from the week.

Liberal views, Libertarian views, conservative views.

What do I think?

I'm not a big fan of Sarah Palin. There were some things she said that made perfect sense and I couldn't disagree with. Washington is dysfunctional, etc.

There were other things she said that I cringed at. The politics of fear that terrorists are constantly out to get each and every one of us.

The tea party could be an interesting movement, but I think it is doomed to be a fringe movement within the republican party, unless it does a few things different.

For one thing, I saw only white people in the audience. And they still are very republican party oriented.

But to me, the frustration with Washington is the fault of both parties. Congress is essentially for sale. Votes can and are being bought all the time. Both parties are at fault. And corporate interests have become more important to congress than the intersts of simple human beings.

Sarah does a fairly effective job of tapping into that frustration. People stood and applauded many times during her speech.

My frustration is that I am simply not real impressed with people who complain about everything, but do not offer up new potential solutions. The tea partiers are like that to me. To them it is like their way or the highway.

Hell, the democrats aren't much (any) better.

A lot of different types of people (liberals, conservatives, green, yellow, etc) are disenchanted with how things work in Washington these days. Is there more common ground than most people think there is? Or is the big money able to keep that concealed for their own advantage.

I have a brother that lives in Finland. We sometimes use Facebook to communicate with each other. He says that Finnish people generally like America, but not real impressed with what we did in Iraq.

Sometimes I wonder about the good old USA.

We are nearly bankrupt. Our leaders are for sale. Action on problems seems incredibly slow.

If I moved, where would I go? Canada? New Zealand? Australia?

It is a lot to consider over Sunday morning coffee. Ahhh, maybe a little too heavy for this day. Jayna had a birthday this week, hence the flowers. We are planning soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden for lunch with all of the family. We get together almost every Sunday for a meal together. We will probably take in the Super Bowl later today too. I didn't get in much riding this week, but the week before I was able to ride every day to work. With the predicted snow today, it may be a few days again before I will be riding to work. Sometimes I think my life partially revolves around my decisions to ride or not to ride to work. Occasionally, thoughts about the world, politics, health care, philosophy, tax laws, religion and other sundry matters cloud my mind. I admit to not being able to provide all the solutions to the problems of the world. Just maybe some opinions. The decisions to ride or not to ride are a little simpler. Tech notes. All pictures today from new blackberry (3.2 mp camera). First post from home with the new laptop. Somewhere in the neighborhood is a free wifi link. I am not complaining. I just hate to pay for stuff that I can get for free.

Central and Oliver

This is an intersection that I travel through almost everyday when I ride to work. We have also lived near here for close to 30 years and we have seen many changes over time. Some changes for the better. Some, not so much. The northwest corner has a rather new and large convenience store. I get gas here often because it is on the way to work and convenient. Many years ago there was a gas station here as well, but it was more of the type you would have seen 50 years ago. Just sold gasoline and had a bay for minor repairs. Eventually that service station became a tire store before that was eventually torn down and the convenience store was built. A little further down the street you can see a strip center. These are all over the place and this area is no exception. There is a restaurant, a jewelry store, a cookie store and a fish store. Ahhh, Progress!

Just on the north side of the convenience store is another building that has housed many things over the years. Originally it was a smaller convenience store. Then a client of mine, who was sort of semi-retired, but who had a dream of owning a coin and stamp collecting shop, rented this place for many years. Some years he did pretty well, some he just got by, but he loved his hobby and spent many years running the coin shop. He was a great guy and I always enjoyed working with him. He has long since passed away, but I still remember him fondly as I pass by the place. The northeast corner has a lot of history to it as well. For now it consists of a vacant building (which I failed to get a picture of) that used to be a liquor store. It was operated for many years by a couple that we got to know a little bit. The husband passed away and his wife operated the store for many years. As liquor stores go, it was fantastic. They had a lot of very fine wines in addition to the normal liquor store fare. They were always good about making suggestions for wines to go with certain foods and for certain occasions. The wife eventually sold the store to one of the employees. But eventually that person had a sick older relative in another state that they needed to go care for. The store has been vacant ever since. There was also a small movie theatre on this corner. In its day it was quite the place. It didn't survive the industry's gravitation to multiple screen complexes and eventually closed. For many years there was a restaurant in the front part of the theatre. It was called Dr Redbirds Medicinal Inn. They had great and unique sandwiches. One of the first video rental stores in town opened up later in the main portion of the theatre building. Remember renting VHS tapes? They were there for many years until a Blockbuster Video opened up about a mile away. The local store couldn't survive the competition with the big chain store nearby. The theatre building has since been demolished, and the area is essentially vacant land, except for the new Burger King. Ahhh, Progress! A new place where you can get way more calories than you need in one sitting. I noticed this car for sale on the corner. Sign says it runs good. It was a bit ironic to me because this how I sold my car a couple of years ago, albeit at a different location. Place it in a busy or well seen parking lot with a sign on it. Someone eventually saw it and called me. The southwest corner of Central and Oliver has seen many things over time as well. I like to refer to it now as the place where people can be taken advantage of. The building right on the corner houses a furniture, electronics and appliance rental store. It is one of those places where you can buy something and eventually pay 2 or 3 times the amount of money for an item before you completely own it. They prey upon people with bad or no credit. this building was once a dress shop for many years, then a Dollar Store before the rental place moved in. Next to it is a place where you can buy supplies for your swimming pool if you have one. So the place is sort of an area for both high and low income patrons, each getting their desires fulfilled.

And of course, right south of the rental store is a PayDay Loan company. The ultimate in financial ripoffs. Imagine paying $45 in fees for a $250 loan for two weeks, until next payday. The effective interest rate on that transaction is astronomical. These stores are all over the place now, seemingly at almost every major intersection in town.

One of my clients used to own a couple of these joints, and made some good money doing it until everybody plus their mothers, brothers and sisters opened up similar stores. They seem to thrive on people that don't believe in banks anymore. The bad thing about these places is that once you get one of the loans, many times the person has to do it again 2 weeks later ($45 again) and the cycle repeats itself endlessly.

The southeast corner now has a boarded up old grocery store. How I miss that store! The size of it was maybe only 3 times the size of the convenience store on the opposite corner. But what a great store it was in its day. The Dillons chain of stores is prevalent throughout Kansas and is now owned by Kroger but still uses the Dillons name.

We used to refer to this as the little Dillons. We lived just a few blocks from here for many years and used to walk over here to get groceries on occasion. A mile north and a mile east is another Dillons we call the medium Dillons, a larger size but still not huge. Then 2 miles east of the little Dillons is what we refer to as the big Dillons, a store we despise because it is so frigging big.

Close to the little Dillons is a little shopping center with a take home to bake pizza place and a bakery/restaurant separated from the old grocery store by only a small parking lot.

On many mornings as I pass through the intersection, I can smell the wonderful aromas coming from the bakery. One of those things you can see and smell and sense on 2 wheels, but never notice in a car. As I was wandering around with the camera, I notice my reflection in the window of the bakery and felt the need to take a picture.

And here is the big Dillons. Damn near everything you want or desire can be found here at this big box grocery store. Not unlike the WalMart Super Centers or the new Super Target stores. Frankly, I can find it very easy to avoid these places. For one thing, the things you need when you go to the store are always at opposite ends of the store, so it becomes a major hiking expedition to visit these places IMHO.

It is hard to see in these pictures how big this place is. There is a new Kroger Finance office here. A recent television advertisement says you can even buy pet health insurance here. I don't even know what pet health insurance is, but can imagine that in most cases it would be a ripoff. Ahhhh, Progress!

Out in the parking lot to the big Dillons is a restaurant and a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop (factory). Krispy Kreme, I believe, originated in Chicago, but now seems to copy what Starbucks did with coffee for the doughnut industry. The world needs a Krispy Kreme on every corner, don't we? Ahhh Yes, more useless calories.

I counted 7 Krispy Kreme trucks in the parking lot. Am I stupid? Is there really that much demand? The store was a bit of a novelty when it first opened up with much fanfare. I haven't been there in a long long time.

Finally a shot of the medium Dillons, the one where we do most of our grocery shopping. Large enough to carry lots of items, but not requiring all day or concerted physical effort to traverse the store. Max loves the medium Dillons. He has been there many times. Alas, I am not sure I could buy pet health insurnce here.

Ahhh, Progress!

BTW, this is the first post generated and posted from my new Laptop. No small animals were harmed during this process.

Time is Money (Blogging? Not so Much)

That phrase is particularly true for me this time each year. At the office we sell time. The more we work, the more we can bill. We don't try and gouge our clients, but we need to survive financially in these depressed times. As a result, my blogging efforts will most certainly decline a bit over the next few months. Posts are liable to be less frequent. What posts there are may be shorter and comments I make on my blog and others will be less frequent. But I am always thinking about riding, and I will try to keep up my reading of the many blogs I follow. I did ride to work today. It rained last night, but stopped early this morning. It was 36 degrees, streets wet, but the ride was wonderful. We have had an unusual amount of fog in the mornings recently and that has hampered the riding a bit. Sure is nice to get out and ride again. I recently upgraded my technology a bit. I upgraded to a newer Blackberry phone and bought a new Lenovo laptop. So watch out! I may do some postings from the road in the future. The local scooter club is planning to participate in a St Patrick's day parade in March. Maybe I'll do a post from the scene of the parade carnage. Tax season is a very mental effort. A high degree of concentration is needed and time is precious because of deadlines. At times I become very mentally drained. So even though my presence in the blogging world may be less frequent for a bit, I promise to stay around and promise to be back with a vengeance! Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Bloggers as Journalists?

I recently had the pleasure of making an acquaintance with a reporter for the local newspaper. We got to talking and discovered that she maintained a blog about the beat she covers with the newspaper. She is an aviation and aerospace reporter, which is important in our community because we have a number of airplane factories here as well as an air force base. I was impressed with her knowledge of the industry and her professionalism. I told her I had recently begun a blog. She seemed very interested in what I was doing with it and we discussed various aspects of the blogging world. She invited me to a forum discussion to be held a few days later on the topic of "Citizen Media". I was not at all sure why she invited me, or If I really wanted to go, but it sounded at least a bit interesting and I decided to go even though I wasn't sure what to expect or learn from it. I learned that the term "Citizen Media" or "Citizen Journalism" might be defined as the provision or production of journalistic information by ordinary citizens. A contrasting term, "Industrial Media", was mentioned during the meeting to identify those journalists who actually get paid by newspapers, radio and television stations and other media outlets. The Internet, by the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and many other networking sites has enabled ordinary citizens to play a larger role in the provision of journalistic information. For example: Much of what we know about the recent events in Iran regarding the protests over the recent elections came largely from people with cell phones, posting movies, pictures and text to the internet. Industrial Media was not allowed to report on these events. Improvements in technology have made the provision of information so much quicker. A virtual revolution may be occurring in journalism today. Some people think that the Citizen Media now has the ability to provide an important watchdog function for society. Locally we have a newspaper reporter that covers events at the courthouses. He regularly twitters during the day as to the events of an important trial, then later in the day composes an actual article for the paper to be published and delivered to your door the next morning. But by the time that paper is delivered, for many people, it is already old news. The internet sites can provide the information much quicker and If getting the information quickly is your bag, then the internet is the way to go. The role of the Citizen Media may be growing as changes in technology improve peoples ability to share information. Also, as the Industrial Media continues its decline in employment, the resources available to the Industrial Media are declining as well. The Industrial Media cannot cover everything that happens in the world anymore. Citizen Media can provide an important role and the Industrial Media is beginning to recognize and evaluate information provided by the Citizen Media. There are some concerns about information provided by Citizen Media because ordinary people are not trained journalists. The reliability of information and ethics are rightfully a concern to the Industrial Media. But the information is quick and in many situations faster than what the Industrial Media can provide. Whether we realize it or not, we bloggers may also be journalists. In many cases it might be more "Op Ed" than actual news reporting, but we have the capability to be Citizen Journalists. We can write about our hobbies and talk about our lives, but we can also be citizen watchdogs and providers of information for the more traditional Industrial Media. There may be more power there than we realize. I know I do a lot of things with my cell phone. I composed this post on my phone. This BlackBerry enables me to do so much more than the phone I had just a year and a half ago. I wonder what my phone will be like in another couple of years. With all this in mind, there are 3 pieces of advice that I picked up from the meeting. 1) Seek the Truth Avoid bias If possible and be careful not to get fooled about something that may not be immediately obvious. 2) Act Independently Maintain your Objectivity If you are rendering an opinion, say so. 3) Minimize Potential Harms Be careful not to libel or invade peoples privacy. Thanks, Molly for inviting me. Now If we could only figure out a way to make a bunch of money doing this. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Update on the BlackBerry Fiasco

Just this afternoon I had a telephone conversation with a very nice woman named Faith that has renewed my faith in Customer Service. Here's the recent events. You may or may not recall that I have had some trouble with the trackball on my phone. (If you care to go back a couple of posts ago, you can read about my attempted minor surgery on my phone. It's entitled "The Bane of the Blackberry") I eventually got the phone repaired at my Sprint store to my satisfaction. But, a few days after my phone was repaired, I got an email from Amazon.com (where I had ordered a replacement trackball) asking for feedback on my recent purchase. Now if you know me just a little bit, you know that I am always going to respond to this type of inquiry either positively or negatively. In this case it was negative, but I was nice. I just commented on the fact that the trackball I had purchased didn't fit very well in the phone and that a small piece of it was slightly bent. I really said nothing else. A couple of days later Faith called me and had received the feedback information and wanted to know how they could make it right for me. She first offered to send me another trackball, but since I had already had it repaired, she agreed to a full refund of the price including the shipping. Whoopee!! I was somewhat surprised, but also elated that they would do that. We are not talking about a lot of money, just $11.00 or so, but I am even happier now. Just wanted to post this to let you know 2 things. 1) It's okay to complain about things sometimes 2) There is some justice in the world That is all!

The Bane of the BlackBerry

Mars as seen from the Viking orbiter

I read a book once about the colonization of Mars. In that book there were many fanciful ideas of what life would be like in the future. Advances in medical science allowed people to live to well into their hundreds of years due to abilities to replace bodily organs that had failed. Cancer had been eliminated. But people still had to deal with each other's personalities, habits and idiosyncracies, and that is part of what the book was about along with the difficulties of surviving in the climate of Mars.

An interesting part of the story (at least to me) was about what they called AI (Artificial Intelligence) devices that everybody had and used on a regular basis. They were worn similar to wristwatches, had communications capabilities and computing capabilities as well. They were entirely voice activated and operated. Essentially they were sort of a cell phone and computer all in one device.

About the same time I read this book, (probably close to 20 years ago), I had attended an accounting seminar about changes in technology in our industry. Usually these seminars were about computer technology and software capabilities. Keep in mind that PC's had been around for awhile, but were not nearly as capable as they are now. We were told by one instructor, who thought he had a good vision of the future, that by 2010 we would all be carrying devices that were essentially the size and function of a small computer screen, entirely voice activated and operated and would serve as a phone, internet connection and computer all in one device. We all laughed and snickered at the time. It was hard to imagine.

Then of course came the "smart phone". I use the word smart in a loose manner. I am not sure how smart they are sometimes nor am I proclaimimg that they they are the AI devides that I referred to above. But they are close and in many ways are an amazing little device. Then, in April 2008, on a date, like FDR once said, "that will live in infamy" I was temporarily possessed by the devil and purchased a 'smart phone'.

The Blackberry 'Pearl'

A device that I love and hate at the same time. Not only is there a love hate relationship, but I paid $289 for this so called 'smart phone' that at times is an unbelievable pain in the ass. Many names are given to this device. I had a client that told me that they are referred to as "Crackberry's". Actually it really is an amazing device. I can get e mails, read blogs on the web, talk on the phone, take pictures, makes notes to myself, listen to music like an IPOD, bluetooth capability, store complete names, addresses, phone numbers, websites and many features that I do not use and never will.

It just seems to me that this device that is so capable of so many things is almost entirely dependent on one tiny piece of hardware attached to the keyboard.

I'm speaking of the "TrackBall". 'The Bane of the Blackberry'

Almost all of the navigation around the various functions of the device are enabled by the use of the TrackBall. It is just amazing to me that they can design amazing software and capabilities into a smart phone and have it be controlled by such an inept little pointing device (And I do mean INEPT!) that operates essentially as a mouse.

For the first few months all was well. I learned the many features of the device, played games on it, explored the web and generally got to know it as my friend.

Then, like it was possessed by a demon, it turned on me like a dog chasing you down the road and trying to nip at your heels while you tried to speed by on your scooter. I started noticing that the TrackBall would start to stick occasionally, sometimes in only one direction. A little while later the problem would go away and all would be fine. But eventually the problem became more frequent.

Just an additional word about me. (In a whisper) Sometimes I am not a very patient person. When I pay money for something, I expect it to work, and work well. I recently bought a new mouse for my office computer, because the old one did not survive me throwing it against the wall one day during 'tax season' when the computer did something it shouldn't have.

(Back to normal voice) The problems with the TrackBall eventually led me to the internet so I could get information on trying clean the device and/or repair it so it would work better. I was incensed that I had entered into a 2 year agreement for the 'smart phone' and the TrackBall was failing less than one full year into that agreement. I tried various solutions such as very carefully removing the TrackBall out of the phone with a very tiny screwdriver and cleaning it the best that I could with alcohol and reassembling the device. It was then that I had discovered that the little teeny plastic prongs that hold it into the phone were apparently meant only to be inserted once into the phone, because once it was removed, parts of the prongs would either bend or break and be weakened. I don't dare try and take it out again because I don't think I will ever get it back in again.

The intial cleaning effort improved the situation a little bit, but eventually it has gotten to the point where the Trackball will move adequately in all directions except to the right.

Up, Down, Left? No Problems!

But to the right? At times it works close to adequately. But at other times it seems to stick completely and only by the mercy of the Almighty above, does it ever seem to revive itself and begin working again.

I haved now lived with this situation for many months now. I recently visited a Sprint store and inquired as to whether I could buy a new TrackBall. Ever had that feeling you were being laughed at? Not just chuckles or giggles, but uncontrollable fits of laughter? I was told that they could repair the phone, but since I didn't buy the insurance on it ($7 per month), it might be close to $100 for them to fix it for me. Not only that, but they could not just sell me a TrackBall. They just didn't do that even though I bet that they have hundreds (maybe thousands) of them in the back room.

I mean, How Hard Can It Be? I already had it out of the phone 3 times by now. It's not Rocket Surgery! Why can't you just sell me a TrackBall, you Frickin Bas^%rds? I'll even give you a cash tip under the table! No such luck.

(More cackles of laughter as I left the premises.)

So I googled 'BlackBerry TrackBall'. I eventually landed at Amazon.com and purchased a ball for $4.99 plus $6.72 shipping and handling. (I should own stock in UPS). I suppose I could have found one eventually in this fair city, but I had lost patience a long time ago. Not only that, but I discovered that I had my choice of colors, so I went with the red color because it matches my helmet.

I rejoiced the day that the TrackBall showed up at the house. I had decided that I should have a good stiff drink, get my camera ready and photograph the 'minor surgery' about to occur and make this operation the subject of a blog post. Call me crazy if you want, but it's my blog and I'll Cry if I want to, Cry if I want to, like the old song says.

The moment approached. I examined the contents of the shipment I had received. I gathered up the tools I thought I would need. My wife was faithfully standing by in case of emergency. The cats were going to supervise, the dogs asleep on the floor as per their usual nature. There was much tension as a hush fell on the room.

Then we started.

As I began to remove the ring holding the trackball, I thought back to the days when the trackball operated adequately. I was excited about the return of those days. It has been a long time that I have put up with the trackball that operated in a somewhat dysfunctional manner.. I got the ring off and the old trackball came out easily. I was thinking that only in a few moments, my relationship with this phone could be restored back to its glory of the first few days after I first bought it. I removed the new trackball and the new ring from the package and began to insert the new trackball into the phone. The trackball is small and it reminded me of trying to thread a needle. My eyes are not good and it can be difficult for me to work with such smal items.

The new trackball didn't want to go in easily. A moment or two later I realized that I wasn't putting it in by lining it up in the correct manner. There were 2 very little pins on two sides of the trackball and I needed to line them up from right to left rather than up and down as I had originally tried. I remained patient.

I tried again for the next couple of moments. It was not going well. It seemed that there was another little metal piece that appeared to be slightly bent on the new trackball and it was preventing me from getting it properly in its place. After a few more moments though I was able eventually to get it in the phone and install the ring to hold it in.

I was beginning to feel relief and joy at the prospect of the new ability to operate the new trackball. I reinstalled the battery to the phone, replaced the back cover and patiently waited for the phone to go through the 'boot up' process. About a minute and a half later, the phone seemed ready to go with the new red trackball glowing proudly in its place.

My assistant, Jake Falkenstein

What is it about Murphy's law. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. I remained patient as I experimented with the phone and the new trackball as I watched in near horror and realized that the new trackball worked perfectly from right to left, but not worth a damn either up or down.

I considered cussing, but there was no one to hear me. I knew my wife was outside and would not hear me. What good is cussing If nobody can experience your frustration with you. I remained patient.

Like Casey at the bat, hope springs eternal and I rationalized that maybe the problem would correct itself. (Maybe the new trackball just had to get used to its new environment). I even took a couple of new pictures of the new red ball and how it matched my helmet.

Look at that red glowing Son of a ..............

In the future may mount here as a GPS device.

It felt perfect, smoothly moving in all directions, but for some reason it just didn't seem to send the proper signal to the rest of the phone for up and down movement. I could get from here to there eventually, but the movement appeared jerky on the screen and sometimes slow to respond, even occasionally not responding at all.

I thought to myself that this is not good. Instead of having difficulty in one direction only, like the original trackball, now I had trouble with 2 directions.

I was considering putting in the old trackball again when I had the thought that maybe a little cleaning of the junction points would help solve the problem. This would require taking the trackball back out again, but what did I have to lose?

This is how my blog appears on the BlackBerry browser.

I got out some alcohol and a nice piece of cloth and proceeded with trying to clean. By this time I was feeling a lot of disappointment, but remained hopeful. As I was in the process of this my wife returned home from the grocery store. She can be very adept with little electronic gadgets and I showed her the problem and asked her to help. She is abashedly unafraid of tackling these types of tasks and proceeded to jump right in and examine the situation.

She agreed that the one little piece of metal on the new trackball appeared to be a bit bent. We even got out an old pair of hemostats and attempted to straighten it. Keep in mind that the entire assembly is smaller that the width of a finger.

I heard the dreaded word "Oops" from her lips. I looked over and saw that the new trackball was in pieces on the counter. She looked embarrassed at me and thought I would be mad (not at her directly, but after 30 years she knows me pretty well), but all I could do was start laughing. We laughed together for a bit and then I proceeded to carefully put the old trackball back in the phone.

The sad vision of the new TrackBall (in pieces and virtually unrepairable)

I didn't dare throw the phone against the wall as I have been known to do with computer mice.

After all, I really like this phone.

That night and into the next morning I developed a new plan. I mulled it over repeatedly in my mind overnight.

My plan was this. March forcefully into the Sprint store where I originally bought the phone and demand satisfaction!

I carefully planned out what I would say and how I would say it. At this point I was ready to threaten moving my account to Verizon. In essence my plan was to either get the phone fixed or get a new phone. I was so tired of all this crap!

Now the other Sprint stores I had been to recently were not the store where I had bought the phone. There was one person there at 'my' store who really seemed to know his stuff and was knowledgable about the phones and the various plans. I was hoping he would be there and save me from any further pain inflicted upon me by this phone. But I was also ready to get really angry. Maybe a temper tantrum right there in the middle of the store would help them to 'see the light' and help me out.

Alas, Murphy's law again applied and the guy wasn't there. I inquired at the desk and was told by a nice young man that couldn't have been older than 20, to go see the 'dude' in the back of the store.

When I went back to the window at the back of the store, I was ready for battle. I told him I needed a new trackball. He said no problem and he could fix it in a minute or two. I asked how much it would cost because I didn't carry the $7 per month insurance. He said that was only a little problem, he would sign me up for the insurance for one month, fix the phone and I could cancel the insurance later.

I said 'Dude' you got a deal!

Four minutes later I walked out the store with a working trackball and a little confidence that somewhere within that phone company there are at least a few people that place some importance on customer service. My only disappointment was that I didn't get to throw my temper tantrum.

The end of the story is actually a bit anticlimactic, but I don't care because I actually have my phone back in working condition.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed