Linda G. Hill, the creator of One-Liner Wednesday, JusJoJan, and Stream of Consciousness Saturday, has asked us to “talk about the enterprise (sales or service) conducted by the last phone call you received from a business you’re not associated with, or talk about that phone conversation itself.”

Okay, I’m going to bend the rules a little and instead of relating a phone call I had with a business I’m not associated with, I’m going tell you about a series of text messages I had yesterday with an electrician I hired to swap out the 125 amp main electric panel with a 200 amp main panel in the house we just bought and will be moving into in two weeks.

Upgrading the main electric service to 200 amps is a pretty involved process. I had to get a permit from the town, arrange for the local utility company, PG&E, to disconnect the power to the house, hire an electrician to remove the old panel and install the new one, get the town to inspect and approve the installation of the panel by the electrician, and then get PG&E to come out and turn the electric service back on.

Anyway, at 12:45 yesterday afternoon, I got a text in which the electrician said the work, which he had started on Wednesday, was finished.Via text, he gave me the final fee for his work. I asked him if I could give him my credit card number, but he asked me to Venmo him the money. I told him I’d be back at the house on Monday and could give him a check then, but he said he’d prefer being paid through Venmo.

Maybe I’m old school, but I don’t have a Venmo account. I told him that my bank, Bank of America, offers a similar service, and although I’d never used it, I could set up the transfer of funds to his Venmo account from my the online banking app on my iPhone. I started the process and was ready to initiate the transfer when I got this text message:Well, at least I tried to be a thoroughly modern, technology savvy man.