Our skinny little mobile phones ride most of the time in the back pocket of a pair of jeans. It can ring, sounding like an opera or a fire engine, and can be interruptive if it’s not put on “silent mode.” It’s especially annoying if you’re in a yoga class that ends with savasana, a restorative resting pose. Perhaps this embarrassment could be avoided by wearing a smartwatch.

Recently, my husband, Dan, and I got smartwatches. Once they were charged, we had no idea how to set them up. We had to go to a young professional to do it for us.

After they were magically linked to our mobile phones, he walked us through some basic features. Turn the dial up and you get this. Turn the dial down and you get this. Push the dial in, you return to the time. Tap this icon and you get this.

For example, there’s a timer app I use at the gym. If I want to do a timed exercise, I no longer have to count 30 seconds in my head. My smartwatch does the counting while I concentrate on the exercise I’m doing or think about what I need to do after I leave the gym.

When Dan can’t find his phone, he uses an icon on his smartwatch to ring his mobile phone so he can locate it.

“It’s over there,” I’ll say.

“It isn’t,” he’ll say.

“Do it again,” I’ll say.

And then he discovers it sitting on a black surface, the same color as his phone. I hardly use this feature because, most of the time, my mobile phone is in my purse, so I usually know where it is.

Since I don’t use my mobile phone on a constant basis, a lot of the time I am faced with a black screen because the phone hasn’t been charged. I’m not sure my smartwatch could locate a dead phone.

My smartwatch vibrates when it wants to tell me something like breaking news or how many minutes it will take me to drive home. How does it know I’m going home? It’s a little concerning.

And what do you do if your mobile phone rings at the same time the smartwatch rings? When this first happened, I abruptly ended the conversation by saying, “I’ll call you back later.” Then, I was told that if you answer one device, the other device will be quiet.

Dan and I recently traveled to Hawaii to spend time with friends. We left our dog with the caregiver. While in Hawaii, my smartwatch buzzed. It was a text message from our caregiver who sent us photos and videos of our dog. Wow! How amazing is that?

One evening, we were talking with my brother-in-law at the dinner table. We told him that he should get one of these smartwatches. I said, “If you should fall down, the smartwatch will call 911 for you.”

Suddenly, Siri came on and said, “Calling 911.”

I panicked, frantically looking for the cancel button.

Dan’s brother wears a simple Timex watch and I think he’ll keep it that way.

Sue Curran is a San Rafael resident. IJ readers are invited to share their stories of love, dating, parenting, marriage, friendship and other experiences for our How It Is column, which runs Tuesdays in the Lifestyles section. All stories must not have been published in part or in its entirety previously. Send your stories of no more than 600 words to lifestyles@marinij.com. Please write How It Is in the subject line. The IJ reserves the right to edit them for publication. Please include your full name, address and a daytime phone number.