Some week

This week is almost over, but not without some drama.

Monday - I begin driving my car out of my subdivision and the oil light comes on. ?!?@#$!!! I was already late for work and now had to drive to the nearest gas station (3 miles away) to see if I was actually low on oil. It was low - in fact, I wasn't sure if I could see anything on my dipstick. More ?!?@#$!!! I got my oil changed 3,000 miles ago, and was told I didn't have to come back for at least 5,000 miles because they put high-mileage oil in my car (which I asked them to do). Added 2 quarts and went on my way. Didn't have time to go back to the oil change place today, but will go tomorrow.

Tuesday - Went to the oil change place (not the same one as last time) and found out that the other place put synthetic oil in my car, not high mileage. This would normally be ok, but since my engine is over 100,000 miles, it tends to burn oil. As a result, the synthetic oil burned right up. Had I ignored the oil light, I could potentially not have a car right now. This place changed my oil, put the high mileage stuff in my car, and sent me on my way. I'm still a little paranoid, and will check the oil periodically.

Later, right before I went to bed, I accidentally knocked my phone off the couch. I've never dropped my phone before. I pick it up and notice that the keypad no longer responds. ?@#$%@$#~!!! The touchscreen still works (it's a smartphone). Reset the phone, still no functioning keypad. The only other thing I could try is do a "hard reset," which would erase everything on my phone. Too tired for that, will do that tomorrow.

Wednesday - Called Alltel, since I have ProductGuard (insurance for cell phones), to see if I can get a new phone. Can't, because I didn't buy the phone directly from Alltel. So I canceled the insurance. I hotsynced my phone and backed up all my phone info (contacts, calendar, etc) to my computer, which took about 30 minutes since I hadn't backed up anything in a year (I don't recommend that).

Did the "hard reset" and then my phone was asking me to select a Language. But I had to use the keypad to do it (which still doesn't work). ?@#$%@$#~!!! Now what do I do? I realized that one of the buttons on the keypad is permanently pressed down, which is likely the cause of the whole debacle. So I tried removing it with the sharpest object I could find - a steak knife. At one point, the knife slipped and went into my left pinky. ?@#$%@$#~!!!

One band-aid and a few drops of neosporin later, I got the stuck button out. The keypad now works, sort of. When the phone returns from sleep mode, you have to take the stylus pen and dig around in the spot where the button used to be. Then the keypad starts to work.

Thursday - began my search to look for a new phone. I've lost 10 auctions on ebay so far, trying to get another smartphone at a reasonable price. Will keep trying.