the BlackBerry has died (at least for now)

I took a mess of photos on my BlackBerry while crossing the massive Route 205 bridge that straddles the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, but I may lose them all because the BlackBerry chose that afternoon to die. I tried calling up the pics to look at them, got the "Rotating Hourglass of Death" icon, then... nothing. So, following proper procedure, I removed the BlackBerry's battery and popped it back in, which resulted in another RHD icon, and a strange "JVM 102 Error-- Reset" message. I tried several hundred times to reset the BlackBerry by pressing either the return key or the trackball (both can be used to reset the handheld), but the BlackBerry insisted on giving me the same "JVM 102 Error" message.

Thanks to my current hosts at the Metanoia Peace Community in downtown Portland, I was able to find a nearby AT&T store, but this didn't prove very helpful: the staffers told me that that sort of error was untreatable at the store, and that I might either have to get a "warranty replacement" (which would mean waiting a while in Portland) or I could try a do-it-yourself solution. One staffer dialed the AT&T help line; I waited 13 minutes for a person to answer my call, and he ended up telling me I'd either need to do the repair myself or have an AT&T staffer talk me through the procedure. The phone was purchased by my father, and I didn't have the last four digits of his social security number handy, so the talk-you-through-it option was out.

So I find myself at the Portland Central Library with less than 30 minutes left on my computer time; Portland State University's library doesn't allow people who aren't members of the university community to use their computers (a bizarre difference with other universities I've been to on this trip), so I'm going to look up phone numbers for other universities in the city, call them up, and see whether they have better computer policies.

Pastor John Schwiebert of Metanoia, who runs his "house church" (it's a Methodist establishment) with his wife Pat, has been very gracious: he is allowing me to stay at the house until Saturday morning, which gives me time to do a slew of things that need doing, including:

1. visiting the local REI to get a water purification/filtration system (thanks, Rico, for the recommendation),

2. mailing off more non-essential items, including the accumulated paperwork that comes of staying at hotels/motels and using ATMs,

3. doing laundry (always crucial for the survival of those I meet),

4. re-walking the border crossing with my digicam so that you can see what the walk was like (pretty amazing-- the bike path, when it meets the I-205 bridge, goes between the northbound and southbound lanes, making it fairly noisy), as I'm probably going to lose most or all stored data when I finally get around to doing the software repair for the BlackBerry,

5. consulting further with Alan about the route ahead, and

6. continuing (or perhaps re-starting, given the possibility of data deletion) transcription of the Genjo Marinello and Brother Luke dialogues.

I'm excited that I'll be talking with the Metanoia group this evening about interreligious issues, but I don't know whether I'll be permitted to record the conversation. We'll see.

Portland is a fine city; not long after the bridge crossing, I hit Sandy Boulevard and noticed right away that there was a profusion of Viet-Thai restos, and also that the city seems to be divided into distinct districts. I passed through the Hollywood district at one point, and many of the shops and restos in that part of town had a Hollywood theme to them; other districts were more history-themed.

As was often true in the cities of Washington, Portland has plenty of bikers, including a large number of gorgeous women on bikes (hey, I'm human). The Pacific Northwest is, I gather, biker-friendly in general, though I do wish that some more effort would go into making roads walker-friendly. This isn't a complaint specifically about Washington and Oregon; based on what I know of my home state of Virginia, we could use help in that area as well. The country as a whole isn't pilgrim-friendly: you're either on private property or public property most of the time, and in neither case should you feel free to flop down on the roadside (or in the woods) knowing that you do so legally. A shame, that. Maybe I should lobby for a change.

Anyway, my ability to post routinely (and to receive calls and emails) is compromised until I get the BlackBerry issue resolved, which won't happen before tomorrow when I will-- we hope-- have access to a computer for more than a single hour. Wish me luck as I hunt down a friendlier university. (NB: Metanoia Peace Community has computers, but I feel guilty about spending hours and hours on them when they're needed by the house's residents.)


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