(written on the 5th)
I got up late today. It’s nice to be in a place where there’s shade where I’m parking. So many places there isn’t.
I was also pretty amazed to see a cloudless sky after an entire day of rain. 🙃
Veged out on my phone far too long this morning before getting going, and then I lost internet connection because I hadn’t yet paid my internet bill, so they cut me off, and with this backup phone, the antenna is pretty crappy, so I had no usable data connection either, not even enough to search things on Google Maps.
So I needed to head somewhere to get Wi-Fi in order to pay my Internet bill in order to get connection, and at the same time, I figured I might as well try again to see if I could find a place that could actually fix my phone or at least help me get my photos off.
I’m pretty well done with this phone. I really really loved my Google Pixel 7 Pro.
You’d think the 8 Pro would be even better, but it’s been pain in my butt.
Gosh, I miss my old ZTE Zmax Pro. Dirt cheap. Amazing pictures. Loved that phone. That’s been my favorite phone ever, I think.
So I drove back into town thinking at first that I would stop by The Warehouse, as I know those stores have free wi-fi, but it was in a mall parking lot because apparently malls in New Zealand our super popular, unlike those in the United states?
I think Amazon has pretty well destroyed malls in the us, or maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, and they are alive and well.
Anyway, the mall parking was absolutely slammed, so I didn’t want to even stop long enough to get signal there, so I headed straight over to the Mega Mitre 10, just a few blocks away.
Got my bill paid and looked up a local cell repair place that was nearby and headed over. Unfortunately, they told me the same thing as the one from Monday: They couldn’t get the screen I needed. 😕
They look for another repair place that had good reviews, and it happened to be back in the mall I had just come from, and though I had my doubts, I decided to head over anyway to at least ask, as they were nearby.
Amazingly, they said they could get a screen for it, and not just that, he said he could get it within the hour. 😶
And just like that, some hope was kindled. 🤞
The gentleman told me to come back in an hour, so I headed out to my van to spend some time being productive. The productivity came in the form of cleaning up and organizing my van that I had already trashed in just the day and a half that I’d been back. 😅
Well, I guess trash isn’t quite accurate, but it certainly wasn’t the picture of cleanliness and organization. 🙃
So I spent a good little bit of time cleaning up and organizing and putting things where they used to be before the Fiji trip.
I noticed some recycling bins and trash bins on the way into the mall, so I was able to offload some of my recycling stuff and the bit of trash that I had. 🙏
I went back in after the expected hour, but the screen still hadn’t arrived, so I just sat there waiting working on journal stuff until the screen arrived, and then I continued working on journal stuff while the gentleman worked on my phone.
Excitingly, as soon as he put the new screen on, just connecting it without installing it, everything was powered up and the phone was accessible. That meant that I could get my pictures off!
The question from there was should I pay more to try and have the power button fixed or just deal with the phone as it was because I’m tired of it and want a new phone anyway because of all the headaches this one continues to give me (aside from the water intrusion issues).
It didn’t take me very long to decide to go ahead and have the phone fixed so that it could just be usable once again, as my backup phone has a pretty crappy camera compared to my Google phone.
And I didn’t want to be fighting with power button issues, so I told him to go ahead and fix it.
After telling him to go ahead and fix it, I realize that I should probably have taken the opportunity to get all of my photos off the phone before telling him to go ahead and take my phone apart in order to figure out what was wrong with the power button. 😅
So I stressed a little bit as I watched him fairly forcefully taking my phone apart, hoping I hadn’t made a poor decision that would come back to bite me because he would accidentally break my phone further, and then I’d never get my photos. 😬
Gratefully, my fears were unfounded, and 30 minutes, or so, later, my phone was back together, screen field on, power button working, and help me walking out happy as a clam at high tide, despite the fact that the gentleman changed the price on me, and I ended up paying 50 New Zealand dollars more than the absolute Max that I was expecting.
In fact originally, the other guy tried to charge me $100 more than the max I was expecting, but then I got it down to $50 more.
I wasn’t happy at all with the price tweaking, but I was happy to have my phone back and be able to get my pictures off, so I just lavished praise on the guy and left.
Having been in Christchurch and feeling stuck in the area because of the phone issue, I was so glad to finally get out, though it took me a while to find a gas station that was decently priced (according to New Zealand standards, which are super high prices compared to the South Dakota and Arkansas gas prices that I’m used to).
But eventually, I was able to get gas, and drive away toward Edoras, where I planned to spend the night.
Exceeeeeept… When I went to take a photo of the beautiful scenery in front of me, the mountains in the distance, after having driven something like 100 km from Christchurch, when I looked at the picture, I saw a glare in it, so I went to clean off the glass that covers the lenses and realized that the guy who did the phone repair had dirtied up the insides of the glass and hadn’t cleaned it.
It was then that I also noticed that the selfie camera was not aligned properly, which made it so the selfie camera couldn’t focus and would sometimes give a message saying that the lens was dirty.
Ugh. 😕
I thought I was done with Christchurch.
😒
Now I have to drive all the way back. Now I have to deal with a confrontation situation where I have to bring to their attention something they messed up, a situation where if they’re not honest, they’ll probably say that it’s not their fault, and will try and charge me more.
More stress.
😕
The other alternative would be to guarantee myself a greater cost by taking it somewhere else to have it cleaned and properly aligned.
Erg.
I felt a little taken advantage of, when the guy said it might be $100 and take three or four hours to fix, and it only took him 20 or 30 minutes to fix, and I still got charged the $100 repair, on top of the screen and screen install, etc.
Now if they don’t take responsibility, making some kind of an excuse, then they’re probably going to try and charge me more.
Really hope not.
I hate these kinds of confrontations. I’m not generally a confrontational kind of person, but if I feel like I’m being screwed, if I feel like it enough, then I can be pretty… stern in return.
Today I swallowed it, I don’t know that I would be willing to swallow it again tomorrow if that happens.
Anyway, so the next stop was trying to find a place to stay again. The only places being either super far away from Christchurch, or write up near Christchurch.
And I figured the freedom camping spots right near Christchurch would all be totally maxed out, so I tried to find a place in one of the towns nearby, and I thought I had one, but I couldn’t prove to my satisfaction that it actually permitted freedom camping, and I didn’t want to risk getting a big fat fine, so I’m driving home now when I found a place with some open slots right off the water at the Naval Point freedom camping spot. 🙏
Wishing I weren’t back in the Christchurch area, but it is what it is.
Crossing my fingers for tomorrow. 🤞
Oh, and apparently, I’m out of practice taking pictures. 🙃
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 