Chapter Five: The Palm VII

My first Palm Pilot was a hand-me-down from the Executive Director of Michigan State Medical Society himself. It was a Palm VII and had a neat little antenna which swung up whenever I wanted to be a show off by telling people that I could surf the Internet wirelessly if I were ever allowed to pay for the service. It also went through batteries at the same rate that my family goes through rolls of toilet paper.

It didn't take long for the Palm VII and I to bond together. I'd take it on shopping trips so it could show me the things I needed to buy, and sometimes I would play “bomb the submarine” on it.

But, sometime in 2000 I was told that my job was being outsourced and then asked to please give back the Palm VII that I had gotten to know so well. And so, I bid farewell to my flat-screened little friend with the little antenna that served no purpose.

So, it was my deepest hope that I would one day own a palm pilot that wouldn't need to be handed back the moment I left a company.