Talking Underwater

(on the IPhone4)
Though to my wife my IPhone4 is a dissappointment in that she can barely understand me when I talk to her through it and she says I sound like I'm underwater, I still love my new IPhone4. I was sitting and waiting in my Oral Surgeon's office yesterday and trying not to think about having a drill inserted into the socket of a tooth I had pulled 8 months ago. So, I was experimenting with Safari on my IPhone4. I hadn't tried it that much yet as I had been sort of satisfied with putting in all the cities that my kids live in in California and Oregon so I could know the temperatures that day there. I find it comforting to know the weather that moment where my children are living. So I can just flip with my thumb through the temperatures and feel more  at peace about most of them being grown up now and living somewhere else.

But yesterday, I needed to think about something else other than a drill going into my upper jaw and skull to put a metal sheath that a screw is later screwed into with a tooth mounted on it. Though my son has had one and my cousin thinks that it might be better to have all tooth implants, still this was my first and the thought of it wasn't something I wanted to think about.

So, I started experimenting with Safari and Google online. At first my IPhone asked me if I wanted to join any of the local wifi networks. Since I knew there were many businesses in the building and likely all had passwords I declined. So I surfed the internet through my phone company (AT&T). I was able to read stories through the New York Times and Los Angeles Times about the severe 2500 mile long storm that just hit 33 states and 100 million people and also the developing story regarding Egypt and Cairo and Mubarak. I found that I could magnify the articles and turn the phone sideways to read more easily and better. I was quite pleased at what I was capable of doing even without wifi. Even though for a person of my age (62) the print generally is a little small if I don't magnify it by spreading my fingers, it kept my mind from thinking to much about the procedure as I waited about 1 hour for my turn with the surgeon. When I finally went in I told them I couldn't take xylocaine and didn't want to be completely knocked out as I had had a bad experience at 18 when I had to take Darvon for a month when my 5th wisdom tooth infected and impacted the other 4 and then had had Sodium Pentothal to be knocked out for their removal at age 18. I hadn't felt the same since and wasn't happy with the emotional or psychological or physical effect long term upon me. I said I preferred more pain to the long term reactions to being knocked out. But since Carbocaine doesn't last long I was feeling the drills become more and more painful towards the end. It reminded me a little of the time in Tijuana in my 20s when I thought I would be macho like many Mexicans were then and have a tooth drilled without Novacaine or anything. I lasted about 30 seconds to about 1 minute before I realized that if I fainted suddenly the dentist might injure me. So, I finally was smart enough to ask for Novacaine (the anesthetic used then) during the 1970s. (I lived in San Diego then so going to a really good dentist in Tijuana might only cost about 1/4 of what a San Diego Dentist would charge) I got my first root canal then in 1975 on an upper eye tooth for only 75 dollars. The same thing in the U.S. would have been about 500 dollars minimum then in 1975.

Anyway, I'm really pleased about my experience media package wise regarding reading the most recent news on my IPhone. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it actually being a phone I talk over. However, it seems to be only my wife that's having trouble when she talks to me through her hands free phone through her car speakers. I think there is a satellite boost in that system that might be having a problem with the IPhone. I'll have to see.