When In Roam
Hello, you know me from this story. Here’s yet another story illustrating my fat-headed father’s annoying behavior patterns.
Cell phones were relatively new when I was young. I got a flip phone, a Motorola RAZR, in 2002, when I was in Jr High, so that I could keep in touch with my parents and my friends. I kept that phone through high school into college.
The phone was tough, durable, and suited to my needs as a rugged kid with too much energy, a tendency to run the contents of my pockets through the wash, and a tendency to free-solo trees, buildings, and low cliffs.
It worked perfectly for the first six or so years I owned it. The seventh year, it developed a weird glitch. Whenever I was out of state, it would not make any calls. It could RECEIVE call, but it could not make them.
This was a problem mostly when visiting my grandparents, aunts, and uncles since I really didn’t have any other reason to leave the state.
I told my dad about it every time we left the state, of course, which was usually about thrice a year. As soon as we crossed state lines, a big symbol that said “No outgoing calls permitted” would show up on my phone.
Me: “Hey Dad, remember, my phone stops working every time we leave the state.”
Dad: “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Me: “You’ll be able to call me, but I won’t be able to call you. Don’t worry, I’m still able to text when this happens.”
Dad: “Okay.”
And every time we’d visit Grandma’s, SOMETHING would come up where I would need to get in touch with him, and I’d text message him, and he’d ask why I didn’t call him after responding to the text message, and I’d reply:
Me: “Because, for whatever reason, outgoing calls stopped working on this phone when I’m out of state”
Dad: “But why would the state you’re in make any difference?”
Me: “I don’t know.”
Dad: “Okay.”
Finally, an event happened where his phone battery was dead, and he wanted to call his sister. He borrowed my phone to do so.
Me: “It’s not going to work; my phone doesn’t allow outgoing calls when out of state.”
Dad: “That’s ridiculous. Let me use your phone.”
Me: “Okay.”
He tries to call his sister:
Dad: “Why isn’t it working?”
Me: “My phone stopped allowing outgoing calls while it was physically out of state three years ago.”
Dad: “But why?”
Me: “I don’t know”
Finally, he took me to a phone kiosk to get it looked at. Apparently, nine-year-old phones were rare, so the kiosk guy had to call an older guy who was more experienced.
Kiosk Guy: “Yeah, you’ve got roaming turned off, should be an easy fix. Just go into settings and set the phone to permit roaming”
Dad: “My plan doesn’t charge roaming; that doesn’t make any sense.”
Kiosk Guy: “Just change the setting…”
Dad: *To me.* “Change the setting.”
Me: “There’s no roaming setting on the phone.”
Dad: *To the kiosk guy.* “There’s no roaming setting on the phone.”
Kiosk Guy: “There has to be, otherwise how could it be turned off?”
Dad: “Give it to me.”
Me: “Okay.”
Dad pokes at it.
Dad: “There’s no roaming setting.”
Kiosk Guy: “Let me see that.”
The kiosk guy takes it. He pokes at it. He pokes some more.
Kiosk Guy: “How can the roaming be turned off if there’s no roaming setting?!”
Well, the phone was nine years old at that point and well outside the warranty. I wound up getting a new phone, my first smartphone.
For once, after this interaction, Dad was apologetic for not listening to me, and this started the changeover where he started treating me more as an adult and being better about respecting my opinion, though he still sometimes gets stubborn, like in this story. He no longer lets his stubbornness affect my comfort, just his own.
