Part II...
So my phone is still dead... I don't know if it will ever recover. Meanwhile I bought a 'Total' wireless phone (flip phone again) mostly 'cause the sales person convinced me it would be easy to transfer my old number... NOT!!
So this phone will probably end up being my mother's phone...
I will probably just go back to the company that has my current phone number and buy a flip phone and pay by the month with them... $5.00 per month to avoid the nuisance of trying to change the phone number. At least according to the (non)service person who sold this phone to me...
Ah well, that seems to be the story of life!