Monday, February 21, 2011

Phoney

This is the week I buy a phone.

Am I ready to give up my cell-phone-free status and start carrying around an annoying little beeping object? I don't know, but I need a cell phone for some upcoming events so it's time to take the plunge.

What kind of cell phone? Cheap and simple. We live too far out in the woods for cell-phone reception, so I can't give up my land-line and I'm too cheap to pay multiple phone bills. I need a phone I can carry with me when I drive my ancient Volvo to Texas for my son's commencement in May or to Florida for my sabbatical next January. More than anything, though, I need to take a cell phone with me during spring break when I'm taking my California Literature students on a journey through literary California. If I get lost on the way to Muir Woods or stranded on the Pacific Coast Highway, I want to have an easy way to call for help--and I want my students to be able to reach me if they can't find their way from Chinatown back to our hotel or if, God forbid, they should get mugged or need to be bailed out.

Frankly, I don't really want a cell phone; I've lived without one this long and I don't feel any urgent need for constant connectibility. But it's time to take the plunge, enter the fray, walk through the door to the world of tomorrow--

If someone will just tell me which phone I ought to buy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Target has some on the European payment model, wherein you pay for x minutes in advance.

D.

Bardiac said...

There are a number of those models. Make sure to look at a map of coverage, and choose one that has coverage where you need it, if possible.

I have a phone company that supports a biking team (though that's not why I chose it) buy $100 worth of minutes at a time, and it lasts me 3-5 months, depending. You may have no problem getting by with less, though.

(I bought the cheapest phoe on their plan for about $50 a couple months ago, after I drowned the last phone in the laundry.)