A mobile data provider asked if I want to be on the waitlist for the latest Apple phone.
My response: I’ll wait for the reviews. Hmmm.
Lining up for an iPhone 17 for six days to be the first to buy one at the stroke of midnight on October 17 might seem like a get-a-life story to the non-Apple fan. Imagine sleeping outside of the store and using the mall’s restroom for six days. Unimaginable? And what if that mall happened to be located in the cities and towns that were experiencing earthquakes and aftershocks. Still, eyes on the goal.
But that would have been perfect for me because 17 became my most favorite number when I was inducted as the 17th president of a Rotary club on July 17, 2015, and that club had its first ever movie block screening on December 17, 2015 with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and the club won a total of 17 awards from the Rotary district and Rotary International for Rotary Year 2015-2016, and the induction with me as the outgoing president was on June 17, 2016.
Inserted in between those dates was the club’s “The Final Debate” at Limketkai Atrium featuring the 2016 Cagayan de Oro mayoral candidates the late Dongkoy Emano, Oscar Moreno, and Rufus Rodriguez, and vice-mayoral candidates the late Ian Acenas, Kikang Uy, and Roger Abaday.
That was nine years ago. How time flies. So many things have happened since then. But those six names have remained familiar to the Cagayanon. Some things never change. Which can be comforting words to those who hate change.
Me, I welcome change. Especially the ones from the cashier which I can then add to the coins in my piggy banks. Note the plural form: bank with an ‘s.’ I don’t have a room that’s secured by a bank’s vault door, but I do have piggy banks. Plastic ones. And they’re pink. Counting those coins at the end of the year and depositing them in the bank helps me realize that a peso coin can indeed go far. Although not enough to buy P20 worth of rice, which is supposed to be a kilogram of rice by now as promised by then presidential candidate BBM.
But who needs rice to be as cheap as P20 per kilogram if the Pinoy can afford to buy an iPhone 17 whose suggested retail price is P57,990 (256GB) and P72,990 (512GB).
Since I don’t eat rice anymore, I yawn each time there’s a debate about its price. Ho-hum. But I stop yawning once I’m buying rice for the household. P65 per kilogram. Juice colored. Hopefully its price will encourage the Pinoy to go low-carb since the illnesses resulting from insulin resistance will eventually cost more through maintenance medicines and hospitalization. Better preventive than reactive.
Since I’m now trying so hard in adopting the carnivore diet, the only apple I can have now is the Apple phone. Let’s see if iPhone 17 is the one that can do everything.
