How great is it to have access to everything ever knowable in the history of the universe in a pocket-sized computer that we can also use to communicate with friends and family? I am talking, of course, about our smart phones. Those magical little pieces of technology that we can carry in our back pockets have completely changed our lives. 

For one thing, they have become our external hard drives for our brains. Don’t doubt it.  Exhibit #1: Phone numbers. My mother knew all of her five children’s phone numbers by heart—area code and all!  And when my generation still had house phones, we knew some of those numbers purely by muscle memory.  Now I would be hard-pressed to remember any more than two or three numbers. Let’s see, I know my daughter’s number, my son’s number and my own.  That’s about it.  Put me in a situation without my cell phone and my options for calling people are quite limited.

Exhibit #2: One of the most-used apps on my phone is the calendar. It’s how I keep track of the date, the day of the week, and where I said I’d be. Without that calendar, I would wander around in circles! I can even add my next appointment to my iPhone calendar right in the doctor’s office. I don’t even need that little card! Of course, my doctors send me endless text messages and emails reminding me of my appointments as they approach, so there is little chance I’ll forget! Again, the smartphone to the rescue!

My only complaint about my current cell phone is that it’s too small. I need one of those mobile phones like you see in the movies set in the 1980’s when they weighed about four pounds and had to be lugged around in a shoulder bag. No way they were going in your pocket.

And no way those monster phones were going to get lost. That is my biggest gripe about my phone—it is constantly getting lost! The answer to this problem is, naturally, more technology!

There is a setting on an Apple watch that allows you to “buzz” your lost iPhone. This has saved me lots of trouble.  However, last weekend I was visiting my brother Fred and sister-in-law Regina, and I forgot to bring my chargers, so my Apple watch died.  Sad.  And unfortunately, the day before this happened, I had set my iPhone on silent mode.  And then I lost my iPhone. It was Threat Level Midnight.

Technology was failing me all around, but I knew I couldn’t depart until I had located my phone.  Leaving my external hard drive behind was not an option.  Life would become way too complicated.

Finally, after tearing my handbag and suitcase apart, I was able to locate my iPhone—don’t ask where I found it!—and Regina showed me a few iPhone tricks I’d never seen before.

What can I say?  This technology is way beyond my poor ability to understand, but when it’s lost, I’m lost