As the Guy Sped Off

When you use a service like Uber, or for us here in China now, Di Di, the first thing you do after the driver agrees to pick you up is give the gent a call.  In my case, the GPS seems to populate my home address as 1111.  I must call the driver and say: “hey, when you get to the gate, tell them it’s 1112, O.K.?  Not 1111.  Tell em’ 1112 and they’ll let you in, OK?  Great.”  I called the guy, so I have his number now, right?  He calls me back a few minutes later to tell me he’s arrived.  We are, one assumes, in possession of each other’s number. 

Today, yapping on the phone, trying to get one phone meeting done and then follow-up with this guy and that guy after it was completed, I put my earphones in the nozzle.  And then I took them out.  I put them on my lap.  When we arrived at our destination, and the family piled out, I told people on the call, I’d be getting out of a car now, and that they should wait a moment.  I remembered to look to see if a bicycle was coming before opening the door.  I remembered to thank the somewhat gruff driver and wish him a happy New Year.  And I zipped up my bags and stepped out and reaching for my earphones, I realized I’d left them in the car, just as the guy sped off.

Cool, no worries.  “Honey, may I have your phone.  I need to call that guy.” I did, and learned that once you’ve paid, that number, which was only a temporary expedience provided by Di Di is no longer valid.  We called the company, who then called the driver.  The gruff man suggested my headphones were not in his car.  I didn’t believe that.  I told my wife to call back and tell the lady to tell the guy I’d give him fifty yuan if he came back, which my wife inflated to one-hundred kuai.  I felt certain that this would turn the tide.  It did not.  And, so for the rest of the day, I did what I could to absorb the modest feeling of loss.  I liked those head phones.  Unlike most wired pairs, I’ve had the wires never became frayed. 

This morning, heading to the gym, I paused.  No headset.  That’s no good.  I’d been given a Bluetooth headset by my stepson for Christmas.  I’ll dig that pair out.  He has a pair of these himself and he raves about them.  I charged the fancy headset for an hour, popped my phone in my pocket and after connecting to the phone, realized that I couldn’t maintain a Bluetooth connection with this top-of-the-line headset; if I walked or moved or essentially did anything other than sit still with the phone held close to my face, the sound sputtered.

I tried to exercise with the phone in my breast pocket and it was increasingly annoying and futile.  I gave up and put the headset in my coat and listened to the tinny sounds from the phone speaker instead.  On the way home from the gym, I stopped at our local Euro Mall and got another pair of good old fashioned wired head phones.  I don’t want to be without music on my twelve-hour flight across the Pacific tomorrow.

Saturday, 02/24/18