If you give a WhizGidget a cell phone (as DH did a few years back)

She is going to use it.

When she uses it, she is going to eat up battery life.

When that happens, she will have to charge it eventually.

After charging, she will use it again… and have to charge it again…

(It’s an endless vicious cycle)

Eventually the battery will die after a 10 minute phone call and need recharging all night long.

When that happens, a WhizGidget will need a new battery...

My beloved Motorola V60 was dying a slow death. Well, actually, it was about to die a really fast one, because the battery was dying. Every single phone call that lasted longer than 10 minutes would almost suck the battery dry. I'd have to power the phone off and let it rest for a couple of hours to let it self-recharge.

So finally, on Friday, I decided to go get a new battery and headed for the local Verizon shop. I walked in, and found the battery that I needed - and then promptly found out that it would cost me $49.99 - and that was without tax.

So I turned, based on something DH had said earlier in the day, and looked at the phones. The girl who was helping me had the back off my V60, and asked me if I was eligible for an upgrade. I was staring at Motorola camera phones that would cost me at least $100 out of pocket, but hey, it had been two and a half years since I got the Motorola.

I didn't know if I was eligible for a new phone, and so she checked. Apparently, I've been eligible since 2003 - 6 months after I got my v60. Then she put a phone in my hand. A Motorola v260. Exactly like the phone I already had, but a little sleeker, with a color screen and better ringtones. And better battery life.

So, we worked it out and come to find, I could get that very phone for $29.95 plus the tax on the cost of the phone, and it would be about $7 cheaper than just buying the new battery for the v60. I stared at the both of them in my hands, open, so I could compare feel and weight and keyboard style. And then I made my decision. A very hard one.

"I'm sure going to miss this little v60, so let's do this before I change my mind." Now, I could have just walked out of there and installed the new battery in my v60, but I decided to give this a go. It's a nice little phone, wonderful sound on it. I've been having fun searching online for ringtones because I can assign a specific ringtone to a specific person. It's *great*!

Heck, it's great to have a cell phone that I don't have to have tied to the charger whenever I'm not using it. I was ready to plunk down the cash for another charger at work, but that wouldn't solve my problem if I'm traveling or away from home for more than a few hours. And I'm really not the type who keeps her cell phone turned off when she's away from home either, because the purpose of having the phone is for someone to be able to get ahold of me when they need me.

If I'm somewhere really important, or in a meeting with my boss, I turn the ringer to silent and put it on the table in front of me. When the service light would change color on the v60, I'd see who it was, and then excuse myself if it was the kids' school or something critical. Everything else would go to voicemail and could wait until the end of the meeting. Yes, I'm an overly courteous cell phone user. I wish more people I work with were.

I'm still trying to find the most appropriate ringtone for work, and I'm thinking The Muppet Show theme right now. DH thinks the Bugs Bunny one (Overture, dim the lights..) would be better, but I couldn't find that one as a tone, unfortunately. He thinks the perfect one for him would be the Farscape theme, and I have to agree. Unfortunately, I can't find that one either except on a site in the UK and I don't think that I want to mess with that at the moment. So I gave him the Lost In Space theme instead.

Best ringtone so far? The Fraggle Rock theme - that's right Suz, I've got the Fraggle Rock theme. I think I may assign that to you and the other stitchers who call. It's somehow fitting...

The ringtones on the phone are ok, but a little lacking - after all, they don't have the standard 1812 overture on it anymore, and that's the perfect Farscape tribute song. Ahhh, I miss that show. But I digress. That's the reason I've been searching for ringtones in the first place - I wanted my 1812. I used to use that as a general ringtone. Now that I can have specifics for people, I can use different things to figure out who is calling without looking, but I'm not going to download 15 million different tones for all the people that call me. So some are just going to get the general one that I plan on using for people that I don't have in the phone book. Men At Work's "Who Can It Be Now". It would be The Who's "Who Are You", but I couldn't find that either.

My only problem is moving contacts over to the new phone. Since service was turned off on the old one, I turned off the phone to conserve what little battery life was left, and I forgot that I'd lose touch with the phone book as a result. So I've lost all my contacts and am going to have to go back through my cell phone bills to find everyone again. Ah well. These things happen. So, long story short, I *finally* got my new battery...

And when a WhizGidget needs a new battery...

...sometimes a cell phone comes with it.

My apologies to the author of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", on which the cellphone parody was based