Even use it away from home

My father began chemo last April and it damaged the nerves in his fingers to the point he couldn't handle a cell phone. My brother convinced me that as medical power of attorney for my father I should carry a cell phone. So I took Dad's. The hospital called me on it a few times.

It is a simple phone Dad bought around 2010. It doesn't even do text. Dad bought minutes for it as needed. When I started using it there were about 1800 minutes on it along with a renewal date of Dec. 29. Over the summer and early fall I used about 200 minutes. I've been keeping it in the car in case of emergencies, but have used it only a couple times.

Since it was time for a renewal I called the company. I said I need to renew but I have so many minutes I don't want to buy more. I found that's not possible. I can still use the 1600 minutes, but to extend the usage time I must buy more. I consented to 30 days and 30 minutes for $10. I could have gotten a year and 400 minutes for $99. I can't imagine using that much.

Yes, I'm quite aware that I could use it instead of my landline and – gosh! – even use it when I'm not at home. At least until I use up those 1630 minutes.

But the sound quality on this beast isn't all that good. And I simply don't like having to manage a phone in my pocket.

Another way to look at this is to ignore the accumulated minutes and only consider that it will cost me $99 a year to have a phone in my car. Is it worth it? Probably not.