Phone Problems by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

I’d like to say I’ve been really busy the last few days, but the reality is that I have only been doing a ton of reading, and not sleeping as much as I should, so right now I’m yawning my head off.

There isn’t much more to say about my life. Unlike Konnie, I live alone unless you count Patches, so a whole lot more happens at her house than at mine.

The most exciting thing that happened this last week was last Thursday. I got a ride from a friend to attend a church dinner, and when I returned home, I discovered I didn’t have my phone in my pocket anymore.

Now, as I live alone, and I have difficulty getting up the hill from my apartment, not having a phone is a huge problem, let alone that Konnie and I had made plans to brainstorm Friday morning, which of course I couldn’t do without a phone.

The first thing I did was email Konnie asking her to ring my phone, except by then no one was near where I dropped the dang thing. So, there was no answer.

Now I tried hard to think about when it could have fallen out of my pocket, which made me realize I hadn’t heard the thing hit the floor. It had to have fallen out onto a soft surface, as in the backseat of my friend’s car.

The biggest issue for me was how was I supposed to contact anyone local without my phone? It took Konnie reminding me I could access our church’s app which provides the contact information for all members in a person’s area on my computer.

I booted up my computer and accessed the app and was able to email my friend and my Relief Society President, letting both know that I felt my phone was in my friend’s car.

By Friday afternoon, I’d had no word from my friends, and I was wondering how I could manage without my phone. How was I supposed to even get help without it?

I briefly considered traipsing up the hill to my other friend’s apartment, but the hill and the steps up to her door seemed too daunting for me. Instead, I took a nap.

  I’d barely woken from that nap and returned to my living room to read my book when my phone announced I had a call from the friend whose car I’d ridden in the night before. The only problem is, I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

I even illogically considered that I accidentally put my phone in my coat pocket the night before, even though I knew if that were true, I’d heard my phone when Konnie called it.

For some reason, I was slow on the uptake, or a little dimwitted, but I eventually remembered that when the friend in question had anything to give to me and I didn’t answer my door, she would put the item through the cat door I had jerry-rigged into the living room window. When I walked over there, I immediately saw my phone on top of the cabinet below the window.

Now my friend isn’t the one who found my phone, it was her husband. It seems even before she got up Friday morning, her husband took their car to the Pocatello Temple. When he returned home, he walked in telling her he found a phone in their back seat.

And my friend immediately took it over to my place to return it. She said she called me when she returned home to make sure I got my phone. As her home is fairly close by car, and the timing for when she called me, I’d say, I woke up from my nap only seconds after she left the phone on the cabinet.

But I have my phone back!

I did reflect that if this had happened to Konnie, she has other people living in her home who would have access to the church app and could have called whoever she’d been with right away about the missing phone while I had to rely on sending emails, once I remembered to access the app on my computer. Before that, I really didn’t know how I could contact anyone local, short of wearing myself out to get to my neighbor’s apartment.

This drove home the fact that without my phone, I am cut off from talking to anyone, while for Konnie, it would have been just a mild inconvenience; for me, it was a major problem. That’s the problem with living alone and having mobility issues.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been so hard if I didn’t have to deal with that hill right outside my front door.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone.