Today I was craving an icy. I regularly do in the summertime. Those great gas station concoctions. I pulled into a fuel city in a rush, and of course on the phone. I got out with the phone still in my hand and on my way into the gas station I was throwing away a drink cup from lunch. The phone was in the same hand. You can see where this is going, right? Of course it couldn’t land on some fluffy trash at the top of the can, but instead dropped like a lead balloon straight to the bottom of the big, nasty can. At first I didn’t realize what just happened, but it dawned quickly enough and so I start digging through gas station trash! When I finally get to the bottom of the can, there is the phone in a pool of some sort of liquid (I’ll tell myself it was water).
So I get the phone out, and rush to the bathroom, already in a hurry b/c my wife is heading out to a ladies night at a local church with some of our church’s ladies, and I’m baby sitter for the night. I disgustedly wipe it off with paper towels (the rough brown, rolled out ones). I don’t know protocol for a water damaged phone so I do what I came to find out was the wrong thing. I start pushing lots of buttons, trying to turn it on and off, etc. The screen starts flashing and goes blank.
I buy my icy for a $1.40, and wait in line for it for probably 3 hours it felt like. Then I rush home thinking, “I’ll just plug it back in and wait for a charge to come back.” Searching the net for similar experiences, while trying to feed my 8 month old, make my 2 year old eat, and sort of eating myself, I discover that I’ve done exactly the wrong thing. You should take the battery out immediately, leave everything uncovered, drying any water you see, and leave it off while the components dry out. If you’re lucky it will come back on. My iPod did after a dip in the bathtub.
I run back to the phone and after removing the cover I notice a pungent smell. Like hot tires, and hear a slight hissing sound like eggs frying. ”This is not good! Not good at all,” I think. So I call Verizon, of course I have no insurance, and they empathetically tell me there’s nothing they can do. My only option is to purchase a new phone. This one is less than 2 months old, but I used my upgrade discount on it, paying $100 (it’s the new Palm Centro for Verizon).
So after all of this mess, I borrowed my dad’s old Motorola Rzr (which I’d sworn off Motorola after bad battery experiences with the Q). I’m waiting until my wife gets home to activate it, and hoping and praying that my Centro will come back on in a day or two. I did try again, and the phone came on, only with no screen. So it’s not completely dead, maybe? So today, long story short, I paid $101.40 for an icy, and to top it all off; It wasn’t even that good. Not solid enough in its texture. Friends, the moral of this story is don’t throw things away with the same hand you’re holding anything important in. AND, when you’re in a hurry to get home don’t stop for an icy.
2 Comments
July 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
Ouch! All that data gone with a watered down icy.
August 1, 2008 at 10:50 am
Sorry to hear about what happen to you the other day.
I try and not use my cell phone why driving and when you half to watch out for what somebody else is doing because other folks might be on they cell phone talking and I am one that I don’t do that. We are Verizon Wireless cell phone to.