...When All is Said and Dunn

Now I know that change is hard to deal with, as we discussed a couple of weeks ago. But in these high tech times change happens every millisecond. I learned a long time ago that trying to keep up with the ever-changing world of technology cannot only be difficult but expensive, and in some cases downright impossible.

Believe me, I may not know it all, but this I know. I have fallen into more traps than a beaver at a fur trapper's convention. 8-tracks, cassettes, Beta, Atari games, all those wonderful brainstorms that seemed so good at the time because nothing before it could do what it did. So some of us, especially me, would rush out and buy it because we knew that this was going to be the end all of all technologies in our lifetime. I could go into the more obscure little waves that passed over us but that would only depress me and bore you, so let's move on.

This is not to say that I will not be investing in other new technologies. Nope, I'm a sucker when it comes to this stuff, but with the help of my wife I have learned restraint. Now when I impulsively want to rush out and buy that new latest gadget or toy I am gently reminded of some of my past follies. I am reminded how the prices magically plummet as soon as I make my purchase and that it might be a good idea if I wait. So I pause, reflect and wait.

How many times has the same thing happened to you? Unfortunately, sometimes you are forced into it. When I first went into business for myself I had to get a fax machine. It wasn't an option, it was mandatory. At that time there were no plain paper faxes and the technology was still very new. You couldn't just run over to Costco or Sam's Club and pick one up, you had to go to a specialty store and ask questions. That first fax machine cost me over $1,200.00. Here I am now, 3 fax machines later and the last one I purchased cost me less than $200.00 and it's plain paper.

If you bought a CD player when it first came out how much did you pay for it? I bet if you bought it more than 10 years ago, you could probably buy 3 for that price and now they hold 5 CD's instead of one. Computers? My God! Don't even get me started on computers and the radical differences in their pricing and capabilities. Every time I see an advertisement for computers I get absolutely manic.

But in the spectrum of all the technologies available there are a couple that I feel should be mandatory to exist in our society. One is a cell phone. With as inexpensive as they have become it only makes sense from a safety and convenience standpoint to have one. All of you out there that use the excuse “Well I haven't needed one so far why should I get one?” don't know yet.

As soon as you get one you'll find out. I was the same way at first. I thought it was just going to be another nifty little toy and would make me feel a little safer when driving around in some less than desirable areas. That was only the psychological aspect of it. What really sold me were the small things, those little moments when a simple phone call could make all the difference.

It's Saturday, when on most calling plans the calls are free, and you are sent on a mission by your wife to pick up something very specific at the store. You get there and are standing in the aisle where there are 10 variations of the item you were sent for but the instructions given weren't as specific as you think they should have been. You begin to second-guess your first instincts like a contestant on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” Should you take a chance and go with your gut feeling and run the risk of coming home with the wrong item and the anguish that will accompany it as your wife repeats the line that every husband dreads, “That's not what I told you to get!”

How could you avoid this and make it to that all-important $32,000 level? What's this - I have a lifeline right here in my pocket. I will just call a friend. In this case my wife, who I know has the correct answer and there won't be a time limit on the questions I need to ask her to get the answer. It sure beats the alternative, which would be buying the wrong thing, wasting the time and gas having to take it back and exchanging it for the right one. That's worth $32,000 in itself, especially if the store you're at is anywhere in Alhambra.

The second low level technology is Call Waiting. This is far and away the easiest of all to use and is a time saving lifesaver if you are trying to get hold of someone and time is an issue. To me it is a common courtesy that everyone should be extending to their fellow man. It doesn't cost that much but saves everyone who calls you the anxiety of redialing your number multiple times. Sometimes for as long as an hour and you don't even know someone is attempting to call you.

The ever-helpful phone companies, in their ongoing efforts to separate us from our money, have come up with a dandy of a solution. For a mere 95 cents a call they will redial the busy phone number for you and give you a ring back when the line is free. Gee thanks, that could be in the next millennium for all I know and what if I have to leave by then?

The party I was trying to call is connected to me automatically and gets to talk to my answering service instead. Yeah that's going to help me out a ton.

How about this you boneheads at PacBell, why not just raise the phone costs a little and make everyone have Call Waiting and make it an extra charge to disable it. The people who have it are in the majority now anyway. Better still, every time I have to use your Call Back service, charge the people I'm waiting to talk to 95 cents. After a few of those charges I bet they would sign up for Call Waiting.

So to all of you who either don't like it because you are afraid of it or don't like it because you are worried about being put on hold for a minute while you're talking to someone, please, please get it, because most of us are tired of waiting.

We are already extending that courtesy to you.