So...what about your smart phone?

I went to the Othello Burger King at First Ave. and Highway 26 for lunch recently. I was looking for the school administration building.

I had been told the building was on Broadway near Highway 26. I drove into town on Broadway and didn’t see it. So I asked people at Burger King for directions.

The first person I asked was a young woman who nearly sprinted to open the door for me. One of the perks of age.

She didn’t know. She was from Connell.

I asked another woman dressed in red and white. Othello colors. Surely she’d know. She was wearing Washington State University colors.

I asked three people seated together. They didn’t know, but they tried. The man asked which building I was seeking. When I told him, he shook his head sideways.

I saw two men. One looked like a tradesman, the other like a farmer. Surely the farmer was from Othello.

No. Neither was the tradesman.

I decided to ask the guy taking orders, but he was busy. So I just went to look for it again. I went all of the way up Broadway and didn’t find it. I stopped at a cafe to ask.

“It’s on that street (First Ave.),” the server said as she pointed to one that runs parallel to Broadway. “It’s next to a church.”

I went down First lookin for a church. You know, a normal-sized church. I found a building about the size of a Wal-Mart super center, with a cross in the middle of the facade. There was no building next to it.

So I sat in the car for a while trying to think of someone to call. It was Randy Miller, who has lived in Othello about three years and was recently hired as a teacher. He asked where I was.

“It’s the next building over as you drive toward Burger King. It has a big Othello School District sign,” he said.

Sure was and sure did. I had passed it right after leaving Burger King heading back to Broadway. I had been right next it to while eating lunch.

In all that time, I didn’t think to call my niece Nicki Sams, who is a teacher for the OSD and has lived in Othello several years. She’ll probably get a kick out of this.

I posted the adventure on Facebook, and my son Teddy wrote: “Why didn’t you use your smart phone? All you have to do is say what you’re looking for.”

I knew that but forgot. I gave him a lame excuse.

Two days later I found myself at Royal City for some pictures with a camera that didn’t have its memory card. I had left it in the computer.

I had enough memory on the camera itself and took the pictures. But then I didn’t have memory for similar photographs in Mattawa. I mentioned it to Teddy’s wife Sabrina when I got home.

“Why didn’t you use your smart phone?” she asked.

Yeah, why didn’t I? My phone actually takes very good pictures.

Maybe it needs a smart operator.

I’m going to start doing what every smart phone owner seems to do. I’m going to sit on a mall bench and play with my phone until I learn, and remember, all of its tricks.

Then maybe my smart phone will have a smart operator.