Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020

I stare at my phone yet again, trying to figure out what has gone wrong with it. Ever since last week’s storm, I can’t get online via mobile data. I have gone into the settings screen and checked that mobile data is working. The screen claims that it is. It isn’t. I depend on the phone in all sorts of small ways. I don’t notice them until they’re gone. Without the mobile data, I can’t get at WhatsApp at work, since it depends on my phone having a connection, and the WiFi is flaky here. It’s how our team communicates, as well as my family. I can’t check when my bus is coming. I also can’t use the bus, since my transit pass ran out at the start of the month, and I use the phone to recharge it. I stare at the phone some more. On the top bar, I spot an icon that I’ve never noticed before, like an N with two crossbars. I swipe down from the top. There’s a whole array of settings for things that I’ve never seen. The odd N is for NFC, which is how the phone talks to the transit card. It’s off. I turn it on. There’s a setting for Mobile Data. It’s off, even though the other screen said that it’s on. I tap it. The phone immediately begins buzzing and beeping with incoming messages and alerts. Apparently this hidden screen overrides the one that’s easy to see. I must have fat-fingered the interface as I tried to hold onto the phone while walking through the flood. Odd are the ways of the Android. I’m relieved. In the states, I would have taken the phone in to the AT&T store or the equivalent. Here, it seems you buy phones and get them repaired from small shops, many of which look sketchy. I’m glad that I didn’t need them. I press my transit pass to the back of the phone and start the app to recharge it. My email comes in. My podcasts update. The world begins to get back to normal.