"If There's Anything We Can Do to Help"

[rowyn]

People at work have said this a bunch of times, and of course I can't usually think of anything people can help with. But on Monday, one of my co-workers said it and I remembered a problem I meant to ask at work about. "Do you know any lawn services? I need to hire someone to take care of my yard."

"I don't, but T might? I know we have some customers who run services. I'll ask T."

T: "I use a service! I went to high school with him, he mows lawns for everyone I know. I texted him, here's his number. You can just text to ask him if he's free."

So I texted him, and he texted back an hour later with "sure, I'll mow it tomorrow, what's the address?" Okay, this is a little weird that he didn't say the price, but maybe he figures he'll quote one when he sees the property. I texted him my address.

A little later, F says "Hi, did you get any good pictures of the eclipse?"

"No, bbut I got some bad ones. Did you want to see?" I looked up to see my cubicle surrounded by beaming, conspiring co-workers. "Hi?"

"Hiiiiiii," they chorused back.

T: "So we all chipped in and we're gonna pay for the lawn service this time. It'll be a bit more than usual because it's been a while but don't worry, we're gonna cover it."

Awwww. ♥ All I really wanted was to be able to pay someone so I didn't have to worry about my yard any more, but that was extra sweet.

On a related note, I have a different "I just need someone else to research this because I am too brain-fried to do it" problem.

As I've noted before, I use a Samsung Galaxy S, a seven-year old model, because it has a horizontal physical keyboard and new phones do not. My Samsung's backspace key is dying, and I am facing the fact that getting another copy of seven-year-old phone is not a great plan. The software I've been using all along keeps upgrading itself and no longer runs well on my antique phone.

I can't get a new model of a phone with a horizontal physical keyboard built-in. But several people pointed out last time I mentioned this that you can get bluetooth thumbboards, some of which are set up so they'll clip to the phone or have a place for the phone to stand or something.

So: if anyone wishes to research this for me, I want to buy:

* A recent model of Android phone (released in the last six months or so, preferably)
* a horizontal thumbboard (ie, a physical keyboard of approximately the same size as the phone, operated by thumb) that will attach to said phone, so that I can use the thumbboard and see the screen easily while standing/walking/waiting in line/etc. So either phone or thumbboard needs to have a way to attach to the other so that I can hold and see both comfortably while using the thumbboard. I've tried vertical thumbboards and they are too narrow for me; I need one at least 4" wide.
* Preferably a five-row thumboard (ie, numbers on their own row)
* I am not fussy about phone size. Good battery life is a plus, but I am resigned to carrying a spare USB battery so not a big deal.
* Lots of memory also a plus. I would love a phone that could edit large Google Docs files, though I do not know if such a thing exists.

I do not need to be gifted this, I just don't have the brainpower to research which of these products work well together. o_o;;;

Thank you!

*

In other news, Lut has been noticeably more like himself on three of my last four visits. I hate to get my hopes up, and he is still nothing like baseline. But it's a positive direction and man I am a lot more kindly disposed to the skilled nursing facility. Whether they have any part in it or not. Please keep praying.

Unrelated, I decided to give myself a tiny daily writing quota just so I could feel good about beating it. So I set it at 200 words, which isn't enough to finish a book in a year, even. But it's tiny enough that I can do it in ten minutes instead of checking Twitter. I hit it today. And I do feel good about myself. Woo, stupidly small number of words! \o/

Editing proceeds apace. I am about 5/6ths through the penultimate pass. The last quarter of the book is my favorite part, so probably will finish this pass this month. The last pass is just "look for editing artifacts" so hopefully won't take as long. We'll see.

Comments

[tuftears]

There was one closer to what you wanted but it got poor reviews. I figured you wanted *quality*. :)

What about a tablet? Something small enough to fit in your purse/messenger bag, but big enough the screen will serve as a keyboard?

[archangelbeth]

iPad mini form-factor? Screen-keyboards do have a learning curve, but the bottom-width of that form-factor would probably be similar to a phone-length. O:/

[rowyn]

It's the lack of feedback from the screen keyboards that makes me especially nuts. I think I'd end up giving up on writing on them before I got any good at swype or whatever the cool kids use to make screen-writing tolerable. :|

[archangelbeth]

I and the kid just hit the screen in the usual spots, but I never had to unlearn keyboard-feedback stuff, 'cause the first iPhone was my first cellphone. (Otherwise I'd probably've screeeeeamed at screeboards.)

*looks at linked phone-keyboard on other post* (Gotta be Android? iPhones seem to have a little more variety.)

*posts this comment and goes digging again for th' 'droidphones*

[archangelbeth]

Argh. I had a bunch of stuff written, and then it barfed on me. Frozen computer. Booo.

Anyway. http://www.toptenreviews.com/mobile/phones/best-smartphones/
likes the Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 7.

I want to throttle all the cute "embossed with a keyboard" phone cases in the world.

Sycom has an identical case to this that works with the Galaxy S8: https://www.amazon.com/Smartphone-Keyboard-Cover-iPhone-Plus-SB/dp/B071DCX7NV/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1503720512&sr=8-9&keywords=iphone+7+keyboard+case (In fact, they have that model for a few Galaxies and iPhones, it looks like?)

I don't know if that would work for you. It looks like it might need to be held upright between the forefinger and middle finger whilst thumb-typing? Or possibly something could be hacked for it to hold it at a good angle so it didn't flop around. *mutter*

I will keep searching, but must get kid to bed, so tomorrow.

[rowyn]

I think that is it! \o/ I have to decide if I want to spend $600+ for new phone at this time (yowch), but that does look like it will work! Tentatively. If I decide to do it, I'll probably order the case to make sure it's not, like, being previewed with a tablet instead of a phone and actually huge. But it sounds like it's a phone case. Woo! Thank you!

[archangelbeth]

If it's a usable phone case, there might be some way to jury-rig a different phone into it, but of course that risks it not being secure.

There were a few other cases that slid-out, at least for iPhones, but if you want a new one and not a 5 or maybe a 6, the Sycom version seems to be the only one. (Blah.) Same with the other Android cases I found -- they're all for older models, not the "last six months" thing. (And the good-rated smartphones are probably all in that price range, alas.)

I'm glad that I was able to find something for you that might work! Tell me if I should keep searching and digging stuff up.