Bye Bye, Blackberry

During one of my husband's temper tantrums last week, he destroyed yet another cell phone. It's really a shame when a grown man can't control himself enough to avoid breaking things when he's pissed. I'm being conservative when I estimate that he's probably destroyed 10 phones in the 10 years that I've know him. Thankfully, it usually happens while he is working, so I don't have to see it. But I always get to see the results. This time, the phone looks like it was hit by a semi. I can't imagine what he did to it, and I really don't want to know.

The last couple of times, I've refused to go get him a new phone, but made him do it himself instead. Why should I be burdened with replacing something that he destroyed on purpose? However, today I did go to the Alltel store and get him a Blackberry.

In case you aren't aware of this, we own a commercial pool service and repair company. We have some large country clubs with high-tech equipment on their pools, and he gets email updates when there is a problem with chemicals, etc. He's able to look at the chemical readings and decide what needs to be done to correct any imbalance. Apparently, it's easier to check email from a Blackberry than a regular cell phone. I didn't know that until recently. (Even though I do have an iPod now, I'm apparently still way behind technologically.)

For those of you who are as clueless as I was until this morning, a Blackberry is basically a phone that is a computer, as well. As a matter of fact, I guess it could also be considered a camera, address book, notepad, GPS navigator....I'm really not sure if there is anything that it doesn't do. It even has a few features that I'm too scared to try.

Anyhow, as soon as I got home and tried to use this thing, I knew he would hate it. Never mind that web surfing is painfully slow. He probably wouldn't do anything other than make calls and check email with it anyway. But the keys are so small that even I can barely use them. Dialing out on it is difficult, and his fingers are larger than mine. It's hard to hit one key without hitting two others next to it. For him, that's grounds for smashing it into a thousand tiny pieces. And he doesn't need another excuse to do that.

I have been told that I can have this thing if I want it. But I don't think I do. I have always said that I don't need my phone to take pictures or video. I don't need any games. I don't need a calculator. I don't need any special ring tones. And I definitely don't need internet or email access on my phone. I just want my phone to be a phone. Is that wrong?

When I'm home or at our store, I have to be glued to my computer. And I'm rarely away from one or the other of those places for more than a couple of hours. Gosh, I think I'd rather NOT have to deal with email during that time. Am I going to pay $50 a month to be harassed by our customers while I'm trying to take an hour break by the pool?

I think not.