Watch the Birdie

Outside our Family Room Windows is a tree that each spring a Mother Robin inhabits.  The nest this year (because the tree has grown)  is three foot higher and sits at eye level while standing in our family room  (so it sits about 14 feet up in the tree).  Last year it was fun to see the birth and feeding of the baby birds but regrettable they disappeared one day (they seemed too young to fly so I assume the worst). 

Rambo, our female cat, sits on top of Susan's chair mesmerized by the Mother Bird's activity.  It was a picture I wanted to capture - the cat watching the birdie.

Alas - technology destroyed the moment.  My HTC 6990 Windows 8 phone camera would not work.  I rarely take any pictures with this phone so naturally I thought it was user error.  No - after rebooting, reentering the SIM card, using settings to reset the camera, searching the internet for suggestions which included pressing hard on the lens, even uninstalling apps that used the camera and reinstalling apps (that the Verizon rep recommended) - there was no success.

So the dreaded RESET of the phone was necessary before the Verizon Rep would send a new refurbished phone (since it is still in warranty- purchased 11/16/12).  But first I needed to backing up picture and contacts.  I had most of the pictures I wanted on Skydrive but was unclear on whether I was backing up (or where) the contacts.  So the Rep helped me enable Verizon's backup assistant.   It stated that the sync was successful.

Naturally the RESET didn't fix the problem so I will have the "fun" of reinstalling all apps.  While I could accept this, it was the contacts that I didn't want to recreate.  ALAS -----  When I accessed the contacts on the reset phone - NOTHING!!!!!!

The story could go on ... and  on ....  and on .....   as in fact my time did in troubleshooting with Verizon.  After 3 hours of effort and emotional ups and downs --  my contacts were in fact restored (actually thanks not to Verizon but Microsoft Online).

The moral of the story -  just watch the birdie  vs   using the camera phone to watch the birdie!