Oh Carol, can you see my passport?

Woke up at 7:30 this morning to go to Passport Canada office in Scarborough. Arrived at around 8:30, prepared to sit on the floor and wail piteously until they agreed to get help me get my passport before my plane leaves on Thursday.

Turned out that Carol from that very same Passport Canada office had called me at home while I was en route, saying that she had received my fax on Friday and was expediting matters. When I got there, there were only three people lined up ahead of me in the main application queue. When it was my turn, a friendly young lady in the booth quickly directed me to Carol, who was very reassuring.

My passport was in production, and would be sent to me by Priority Post before Thursday, she promised. If I hadn't gotten it by Thursday at noon, she told me to call her directly and she will make sure I get it before my plane leaves. She gave me the phone number for her direct line. I clutched the piece of paper with her phone number on it as if I were afraid it would fly away.

And discovered I needed to call her the minute I got home. I realized that my flight leaves at 3:25 Thursday afternoon. That meant that if my passport hadn't arrived by noon Thursday, there wasn't going to be a whole lot of time for Carol to do very much expediting.

"Don't worry," she said when I called. "If you haven't received it by Wednesday afternoon, call me then."

I thanked her and apologized for being a nervous Nellie.

"I know this makes you nervous, she said, "but it will be OK. We deal with this kind of thing all the time."

I noted that her job resembled a high-wire act to a civilian like me. I'm not sure she thought that was funny.

But, somewhat reassured, I hung up the phone and went to go spend some more money.

Want to consolidate devices: calendar, phone, email, quick Web hits.

I liked the trim look of the Pearl (which is almost half the width of the other Blackberry models -- there are fewer keys and you tap them twice for certain characters) and had used a Blackberry before, so the interface would be familiar.

But the iPAQ had WiFi, which the Pearl didn't have. Because of the WiFi, I could probably use it for almost everything I'd need my laptop for while on the road. That would allow me to leave my laptop at home. Since it doesn't have a spinning drive like the laptop does, the iPAQ would have a better chance of surviving the bike vibrations on the road, too.

So, I decided to spring for the iPAQ: $799 with a $50 rebate, for a three-year plan.

Brought the iPAQ home and started charging it. I've never used a PDA except the Blackberry, not even the Palm devices. But the iPAQ uses a trimmed down version of Windows, so I hope the learning curve isn't going to be too steep. And that the iPAQ's version of Windows doesn't share my laptop OS's propensity for locking up at the most inopportune moments.

My friend Terry Fong is far more patient with hardware/software glitches than I am, and has promised to look at what I'd need to do if the iPAQ resets itself and loses all its data. He said my best plan may be to back up the software and data I need on a memory stick so I can repopulate the iPAQ with my data at a cybercafe, if necessary.

Next, I checked email while munching an eggplant roti from Island Foods. Browsed some material I will use later tonight to update my Media Gleaner blog. I'm going to try to maintain it while on the road -- entries will just be more sporadic than normal.

I settled in for the night, knowing I have no choice but to leave the fate of my trip in Carol's hands.