I recently had to factory reset my phone. That means that all my apps were removed and I had to reinstall them. But, sometimes I couldn’t find the original app. For example, I couldn’t find the original weather app. I found a new one. It behaved slightly differently. Instead of waiting for me to open it, the app constantly shows me the current temperature and weather.
My new weather app constantly displays the current weather. And, being security conscious, I didn’t give the weather app access to location services. In fact, I don’t even enable location services. Is Google trying to track me? Yes. Will they use my location data to do anything nefarious? Probably not. Do I even know the definition of nefarious? I’m not sure.
But, I generally also lock my doors while believing a burgler wouldn’t be seriously detered by a lock on my house or car.
Anyway, the point is I told my weather app to show me the weather for Pleasant Grove, UT. And I didn’t give it permission to check my location.
Utah weather in the winter is pretty basic. It’s either cold and clear, or cold and snowy. Oh and it’s often smoggy. Utah has some of the worst winter air quality in the nation. The dangers of living in a high mountain valley.
I’m not in Utah this week. I’m at our call center in Miami. Do you know what brings people to Florida in January? Apparently it’s a destination location. It’s not cold and snowy in Florida in the winter. At least not in Miami.
My hotel is right on the beach. In fact, it’s literally on an island, but you can walk out of the hotel onto the beach. As I was on my way to work this morning, a couple in swimming suits were coming back from the beach. . .in January. Yeah, Florida.
I went skiing a couple of times when I was much younger and first lived in Utah. I wasn’t particularly passionate about it. But, I knew I would live in Utah a long time. And eventually, I would visit locations where people pay thousands of dollars each winter to fly to Utah and go skiing. I didn’t want to tell them I’ve lived in Utah for years and never went skiing.
I didn’t bring a swim suit to Florida.
I’ve flown thousands of miles to Florida in the middle of the winter and probably won’t even put a toe in the water. I will spend a lot of time inside our call center. It used to be a big warehouse store. We’ve carved it up into groups of a few hundred seats in each section.
For whatever reason, the area where my client sits is near some of the industrial sized AC vents. It was a little chilly. In fact, it was downright cold.
Sadly, I’ll spend more time under the overactive AV vents than I will under the sun on the beach. When I get home my lovely wife will ask, “How was Florida?”
Freezing.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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