Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Darcy Patko



Monday morning, bright and early I felt happy and I seemed to live in an optimistic Leibnizian world, a best of all possible worlds. By the end of the day it had become Candide’s pessimistic and satirical (via Voltaire), “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

You see I dropped my iPhone. It worked fine except for its primary purpose of enabling me to communicate with someone beyond shouting range. It was caput as a phone. A short trip (with a throbbing toothache) to chat with the geniuses at my local Oakridge Apple Store brought no relief of any kind. The phone ( amost basic and early model 3G) could not be repaired and Apple was prepared to provide me with a brand new (3G) for $170 plus the relevant taxes and no, they would not upgrade me to a 4 for any money.

The folks at Telus told me that I would have to pay $275 to terminate what remained of my 3-year contract and for the sum (a special!) they would give me a iPhone 4 for $49 if I were to agree to a 3-year contract.

The pain in my upper back molar was so bad that I could not think straight so I called and made an appointment to see Dental Ben today and I would figuratively put a gun to his head and demand a lovely root canal. My appointment was at two.

The next day, at precisely 1:30 our Malibu did not start.  I had to make it to Dental Ben's! I called a Yellow Cab and told Rosemary to deal with BCAA and have someone see what electrical problem we might have to deal with.

On Monday I had taken the Malibu to Dueck on Marine to have the rear brake rotors change. They were wobbly. My Service Consultant, a very pleasant young man called Cam Haskins told me that he had had a friend with similar problems with his iPhone and that he had temporarily resolved the issue by using earphones. He was right! And finally I knew that was was wrong with my phone was the phone speaker.

Rosemary called Haskins who told her that we had probably left a car door not quite closed or something of the sort.

While going to my root canal I remembered that Tuesday morning as I had gone to pick up Rosemary at Safeway there had been a persistent warning ring when I closed the door. I had ignored it. I suddenly knew that somehow the Auto light switch on the steering column had been moved to Light and that had drained the battery.

Dental Ben did the root canal (a tricky one) and filled the tooth (a tricky procedure as there was little of my tooth left). He sent me on my merry way warning me that I would be in pain the next day. That was not to be. I called, using the phone at Dental Ben’s) Rosemary to pick me up. This was not because I could not take the bus home (Dental Ben had told Rosemary on the phone that I was as good as Kessler and that I could ride the bus, no problem). I knew the car had been started by BCAA and that it needed to be driven to charge up the depleted battery.

With no pain and driving the Malibu all was well, as I knew that come Wednesday (and that was to be) I was going to go to Ash Street, near West Broadway to pick up my phone. You see, an enterprising young man, Darcy Patko (The Mobile Phone Repair Shop 604-700-6049) repairs iPhones! For $50 he left my 3G as good as new.

Illustration by Rockwell Kent from my 1926 edition of Candide

The car starts, my tooth does not hurt and my iPhone works. That has to make today the best of all possible worlds. And I will take Candide’s advice “…we must cultivate our gardens.”

My thanks to Dueck’s Cam Haskins, to Doctor Ben Balevi (Dental Ben) and Darcy Patko.