I got a new pager today.
I got the last one after dumping my previous pager in the Russian River. That one, however, had a real problem with acquiring and keeping the signal. So it would frequently go off-line for extended periods of time. The last straw, however, came last weekend when I was working late.
It was shortly after midnight and I got a page from one of the other consultants working with Long's. I wasn't too surprised, as I knew he was a night owl also, and was probably up working. So I called him. At a quarter past midnight. He said "Hi Roger, what's up?"
I told him I was responding to his page, and he said he had sent that hours ago. Luckily, he was up, and not sleeping, but it wasn't a happy feeling to know that I might have woken him. So I went across the street today to trade it in for a new one.
While there, I happened to ask if they had any of the new Talkabout 2-way e-mail pagers in. They did, and the guy pulled one out for me to look at. So I asked how much, and they were on sale for only $124 and change. To rent them, however, was only $6 a month. With tax, it would be two years before I saved enough on rent to justify the cost of purchasing one, and by that time, I would be on to my next pager.
So of course I got one. Unfortunately, they didn't have any that weren't set up to get the stupid news alerts, as if I really believed the mass media enough to want to have them bugging me all day, but they are going to send me a replacement that doesn't get news. And so now, I can send e-mail from nearly anywhere, without having to drag out my laptop.
Mobility just keeps getting smaller.