Read the Manual

When one gets a cell phone one should read the owner’s manual instead of attempting to have their daughter interpret symbols she cannot see. But thank goodness for my parents’ trip to Maine they invested in a cell phone. My Mo was complaining because she said the phone hadn’t been activated. I told her I would call the number to see if it would ring in. She could hear my house phone ringing her cell phone but the cell phone wasn’t ringing. She said, "See, this thing isn’t working, it just isn’t working, why isn’t it working?" I said, "Well, is it powered up correctly?" "Oh, well, no, it’s not on" "Mom, turn the phone on." *Sigh* "I don’t understand what this button does. It says "settings" and then it says "silent" and "meeting" and "normal," what does that mean?" "That is how you set how you want your phone to ring." "Well, which one do I want?" "Normal." "Well, what is this line with the line through it?" "I don’t know, Mom. Did you read the manual?" "I really haven’t had time." "You really need to read the manual, Mom." *Sigh* ... and hour and a half later... "Mom, you may not have service out there in the mountains *BFE!*" "But, I gave them my zip code and that is how they are tracking my minutes." "That doesn’t mean that you have service." "But, they did it by my zip code." *Banging head against keyboard* "I still don’t know what this line with a line through it is." "Mom, maybe you should just read the manual." "Well, I’m just going to have to get out my magnifying glass to read the instructions. They print them too small." "Mom, have a great trip."