Lost In The Selva Oscura

Yesterday I telephoned a credit card company to tell them of my whereabouts in the next few weeks.  The very pleasant voiced young lady with whom I attempted to speak asked me to begin with "what is your user name?"  I had no idea what she meant, nor could I subsequently recall for that particular name a "passcode" associated with it for which she also asked.  Somewhat rattled I called out to my husband to look on my computer, at the same time reassuring her that I would get the information she needed.  You may not have someone helping you with this," she said severely, but by then too late, he had called out the names and numbers and they clicked in recognition in my brain, and we were back in business.  And also yesterday I went online to find out some information from another account which just as the screen was coming into view was blocked by a legend telling me that it was a law or a federal regulation that I be told the inner mysteries of the financial system or something like that.  Why in heaven's name would I want to know this?  The box informed me that I could hit the "later" button five times and then I would have to stop and submit to this information.  Hey ,why can't I make a date?  I am always busy doing something when the command comes.  Google Plus has taken to sending me messages suggesting things I might do, places to go, and so forth.  What is this?  I am perfectly capable of amusing myself as well as informing myself.  Last evening I was talking with a friend in Vermont when the cellphone in my hand suddenly went dead.  Up in the left hand corner where it was supposed to say AT&T and other things it read, instead, "no service."  Now, what did that mean?  My first thought was old fashioned "oh, the telephone lines are down."  Nothing on the cellphone indicated the nature of the problem.  Was it me, the phone, telephone central, the end of the western world?  I put the phone down as I tried to wrestle with the issue.  A moment later I noticed that the AT&T sign had reappeared, and I called my son to see if his world were still intact.  "Dad," he said to me, "your phone got overheated.  Turn it off, and wait awhile."  I turned it off and went to bed.  Today it seems happy, works just fine.  Is temperamental the name of the game for the Iphone whatever number it is? the one before the one they are all jumping up and down about right now?  This is the one that still has some gizmo that the new one does not.  One feature it definitely does have, in addition to being oversized, is that the perfect place to set my fingers when holding the phone is also the place for the finger to lower the sound, so almost always I do not hear my calls and then if by chance I answer cannot hear the caller.  Perhaps it is time to switch to the old folks cellphone advertised in the AARP magazine.