I was pickpocketed last night between 2 and 4 AM as I sat (and accidentally dozed off) on a park bench outside the old Family Dollar building.<\/p>\n
They got my iPhone 14.<\/p>\n
The good news? They didn’t get my wallet, my ID, my cash, my debit cards, my backpack, or my Chromebook. I had all those things too well secured to be stealable.<\/p>\n
I thought I had the iPhone well secured, too.<\/p>\n
And now it’s gone. I am devastated.<\/p>\n
If any of my readers have a phone they could part with, especially an iPhone, it would make my day. My month. My year.<\/p>\n
The best way to reach me is to email me at paul.ryburn@gmail.com. Or hit me up on Messenger if we’re friends on Facebook.<\/p>\n
One thing criminals can never take from me is the love of my friends and readers. Several of you expressed that love this week. I needed it and I am so grateful.<\/p>\n
I tried a Groove on Demand<\/a> rideshare for the first time yesterday. Groove is marketed as offering the convenience of a Lyft or Uber at the price of a MATA bus ride.<\/p>\n It was about 11:30 in the morning and I was at the Memphis Chess Club, having completed my daily blog post. I wanted to go see my friend Christina at Earnestine & Hazel’s. However, I did not want to walk a mile-plus in 98 degrees\/feels like 107. Especially not with Parkinson’s disease and my cellulitis-infected legs.<\/p>\n So I pulled out my not-yet-stolen iPhone and ordered a Groove.<\/p>\n The app told me a 7-passenger Chrysler Sierra van would arrive in 26 minutes to pick me up. 26 minutes!, I thought. A Lyft would be there in 5 to 10.<\/p>\n But then I remembered, including tip a Lyft would be $12 to $14. Groove on Demand has a flat fee of $1.25. And besides, it would take me longer than 26 minutes to get to E&H if I walked.<\/p>\n Once my ride arrived, things were great. The driver was very courteous and gave me plenty of time to climb into my seat. The van was well air-conditioned.<\/p>\n There was one other passenger and I struck up a conversation. She was one of the people who moved to Memphis to open up Chick-fil-A Uptown.<\/p>\n The driver dropped me off across the street from E&H. Five stars, would use again (if I had a phone). My friends at the bar hadn’t heard of Groove, so the rideshare service still has plenty of marketing to do.<\/p>\n I found out the name of the reality TV show that’s been filming couples on dates at Downtown bars. It’s called Ready to Love and it’ll be on the Oprah Network.<\/p>\n Back soon with more news.<\/p>\n I gratefully accept tips:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> I was pickpocketed last night between 2 and 4 AM as I sat (and accidentally dozed off) on a park bench outside the old Family Dollar building. They got my iPhone 14. The good news? They didn’t get my wallet, my ID, my cash, my debit cards, my backpack, or my Chromebook. I had all … Continue reading “iPhone stolen + Thursday news”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30265"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30266,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30265\/revisions\/30266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span>Venmo:\u00a0@Paul-Ryburn<\/a>\u00a0(8113 if it asks for digits)
\nCash App: $PaulRyburn1
\nZelle: paul@paulryburn.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"