Tuesday, June 12, 2012
A Loud Wake-Up Call
I really think the universe is conspiring to tell me something. I really do. Sunday, on our 3-hour drive back from the river, I stopped for gas about an hour from home. I pulled out my cell phone while the gas pumped. Finished up, got in the car, drove the rest of the way home, unloaded the car, put in a load of laundry, then wondered where my phone was. Do you know where I might be going with this?
If you guessed "He left it on top of the car and drove away," you are correct! I called the gas station and asked if anyone had turned in a phone. Nope. Laura downloaded an app called "Find My iPhone" and we plugged in my username and password. Boom! There it was on the map: On the side of the highway, less than a mile from the town where we stopped for gas. It wasn't moving, so no one had it. [My wife is a genius for thinking of this. I would not have, I freely admit.] I drove an hour south and took the exit, then got back on the highway heading north. I pulled to the shoulder and turned on my hazards, driving slowly up the road and trying to figure out where the phone might be based on the overhead map. Luckily it was (1) after one overpass and before another, so there were easy-to-find landmarks and (2) not in the middle of the highway where it would have been both crushed and irretrievable. I saw a black rectangle up ahead. Could that be it? I got out and walked up to it. Yes indeed, there it was.
The rubber case was GONE. No idea where that ended up, but it was already nearly dusk by then and I had another hour drive back home ahead of me on a Sunday night, so I wasn't going to beat the bushes looking for it. Also lost: The pediatrician's business card I had laminated and behind the phone. Replaceable, thank goodness.
As for the phone itself, well, it worked (and still works, amazingly). The glass on both the front and back is severely cracked. I think the rubber case saved it in the fall, but then the phone was likely run over by one or more passing cars before landing on the side of the road.
Here are two pics I took just now in the men's room of my office (of my phone):
Part 2 of my story:
This morning I was deleting old emails and came across a link Laura had sent me back in May:
www.handsfreemama.com/2012/05/07/how-to-miss-a-childhood
I remember looking at it briefly and saying something like "huh, interesting." I clicked on it again and read it more closely this morning and it really hit home. It could also be called "how to miss a marriage" or "how to miss friendships" or "how to miss life."
The combination of the phone incident and stumbling across this link within 48 hours is no coincidence. It's a wake-up call (call, phone ... pun intended). When I first saw my phone on the side of the highway, I wondered who would be best to fix it and for the best price. Now I think I'm going to hold off on it. The phone works. Right now I keep it in a sandwich bag in case the glass comes loose. I didn't look at it at all after work yesterday. The introduction in the link above has inspired me. She says:
I'm in.
If you guessed "He left it on top of the car and drove away," you are correct! I called the gas station and asked if anyone had turned in a phone. Nope. Laura downloaded an app called "Find My iPhone" and we plugged in my username and password. Boom! There it was on the map: On the side of the highway, less than a mile from the town where we stopped for gas. It wasn't moving, so no one had it. [My wife is a genius for thinking of this. I would not have, I freely admit.] I drove an hour south and took the exit, then got back on the highway heading north. I pulled to the shoulder and turned on my hazards, driving slowly up the road and trying to figure out where the phone might be based on the overhead map. Luckily it was (1) after one overpass and before another, so there were easy-to-find landmarks and (2) not in the middle of the highway where it would have been both crushed and irretrievable. I saw a black rectangle up ahead. Could that be it? I got out and walked up to it. Yes indeed, there it was.
The rubber case was GONE. No idea where that ended up, but it was already nearly dusk by then and I had another hour drive back home ahead of me on a Sunday night, so I wasn't going to beat the bushes looking for it. Also lost: The pediatrician's business card I had laminated and behind the phone. Replaceable, thank goodness.
As for the phone itself, well, it worked (and still works, amazingly). The glass on both the front and back is severely cracked. I think the rubber case saved it in the fall, but then the phone was likely run over by one or more passing cars before landing on the side of the road.
Here are two pics I took just now in the men's room of my office (of my phone):
 |
| Front of phone |
.JPG) |
| Back of phone |
This morning I was deleting old emails and came across a link Laura had sent me back in May:
www.handsfreemama.com/2012/05/07/how-to-miss-a-childhood
I remember looking at it briefly and saying something like "huh, interesting." I clicked on it again and read it more closely this morning and it really hit home. It could also be called "how to miss a marriage" or "how to miss friendships" or "how to miss life."
The combination of the phone incident and stumbling across this link within 48 hours is no coincidence. It's a wake-up call (call, phone ... pun intended). When I first saw my phone on the side of the highway, I wondered who would be best to fix it and for the best price. Now I think I'm going to hold off on it. The phone works. Right now I keep it in a sandwich bag in case the glass comes loose. I didn't look at it at all after work yesterday. The introduction in the link above has inspired me. She says:
I'm in.
# posted by smacky @ 9:45 AM 
