Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Another instance of “don’t judge a book by its cover” slaps me in the face.

I bought my wife an Android tablet for Christmas. If you know my wife, you will need a couple of minutes to regain your composure and resume breathing. Okay, we continue.

I, being the smart computing person that I am, was going to have it all set up for her so that when she opened the box, it would have all the apps and all that good stuff. I was staying in a motel, and the WiFi in the motel was a bit odd (that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it). Despite being the smart computing person that I am, I couldn’t connect the new Android tablet to the Internet.

I was sitting in the motel lobby, when this fella’—if you saw him with his front teeth missing and his belly hanging over his belt, you would know why I call him a “fella'”—who worked the night shift looked over my shoulder and asked what I was doing.

After several shrugs and just-leave-me-alone-because-of-the-smart-computing-person-that-I-am looks, I handed the non-cooperative Android tablet to the fella’. In five minutes, he handed it back to me fully connected to the Internet.

“Sometimes they act a little funny,” was his reply or some other folksy saying that a fella’ with no front teeth, his belly hanging over his belt, and scratching out a living as a night clerk would utter.

Being the smart computer person that I am, I had to admit, well, I don’t know what I had to admit, but I had to admit something to myself about Android tablets, motel WiFi, and night clerk fella’s. I guess the big admission is that the night clerk fixed my Android tablet when I couldn’t. No, you can’t judge a book by its cover. And yes, you can learn a few things from just about anybody, so keep your notice-er working and learn.