Kurplop!

One of the tasks that I have been working day in and day out at the Nursery is planting plants into 20 foot long mats. This tasks involves a lot of time walking through ponds retrieving the plants and then lining up the mats once all the plants have been planted into the mats. The ponds are just higher than ankle deep and maybe a little bit deeper in some areas, but not much. This job is pretty redundent but the time seems to creep by a little faster than other tasks I've had in the past. And just to make sure we don't miss our break and/or lunch we are often checking the time.

At the beginning of the week while working this job the time was nearing our lunch break and so I was keeping an eye on the time using my cell phone. Nobody else in my crew had a watch or phone to know the time themselves, so they relied on me to tell them when it was lunch time, on the dot.

One of the crew members asked what time it was and so I quickly tried to dry off my hands on my shirt as best as I could before reaching into my pocket to pull out my phone and check the time. With slightly wet hands I retrieved my phone and slide it open to check the time. I had to turn slightly in order to provide a little shade in which to see the screen. As all of this was happening in just miliseconds, my phone slipped out of my hands, hit the ground and slide down the short bank right into the pond I was standing next to making a "kurplop" sounds as it went under water. With no delay I went in right after it! My phone was only in water for a couple seconds, maybe one and half seconds, but it was enough to do the damage.

The options on my phone went burzurk! It was like my phone had a mind of its own but it was a crazy mind and I couldn't do anything about it because the buttons wouldn't work! It went through all of the different options my phone has over and over again at an intense speed. Not being able to control anything I pulled the battery out so it wouldn't do something irreversable or delete everything on my phone. I set everything out in the sun to dry in hopes that my phone would dry out, return to a sane state and work properly again.

I discovered that the only two buttons that worked were the on/off button and the 'back' button. Out of all of the buttons these two were the most important in this case. There was one point were my phone decided to send a text message to everybody in my phone. In an attempt to stop it I had to repeatedly push the back button. It turned into a speed contest. My phone wanted to see how fast I could keep pushing the back button before it sent the text message that was full of text-templates. I won....thank goodness for the on/off button.

Discovering that the only TMobile store that I knew of in Rexburg was no longer in operation I rode my bike across town to another cellular phone company. When I handed the employee my phone he immediately recognized it as a TMobile phone and asked, "How come you came here instead of going next door to the TMobile store?" I felt dumb. I didn't even notice the store right next to it was a TMobile store. He looked at it anyways and quickly told me that my phone was a gonner because water basically zaps the fuses inside the phone. He then told me that water damage is usually not covered under the warrenty. Things were not looking good.

I decided to take it into TMobile anyways to see what they would offer me. They tried to get me to buy another phone, which of course was really expensive, but with some insistance they finally said that they could try to fix it. I didn't have too much trust in them but with a prayer in my heart sent heavenward I walked out of the store leaving my phone behind for a hopeful successful repair that would take a couple days.

I'm not going to lie, I kept my phone in my prayers. There are messages, texts, pictures, and recordings on my phone that I have saved for a long time that mean a lot to me that I didn't want to lose. Plus, having to buy a new phone would be a lot of my money out of my pocket that was reserved for other things.

My prayers were answered! I went into the store today to check up on my phone's repair and after waiting for a very long time I was so happy to hear that it had been fixed! I had to wait again for a very long time until the manager who had fixed it came into the office could give it to me. But it was well worth the wait. I checked all the functions and everything seemed to work great! Nothing had been lost or deleted which was another relief. With just a small labor fee I now have my phone back!

Not having my phone for a few days felt a little weird, but there was a small feeling of freedom that came with it. Although I felt somewhat cut off from things it was kind of nice to not have it. I have gone without my phone for weeks at a time, but tha was because I was working at Anasazi and there is no other choice. It was a little different to be in the 'city' and not have my phone verses being out in the wilderness, but it was a nice little break.

On another note, I have been making a mental list of the perks my two jobs have. Here's the list so far:

- I get to wear my chacos at both jobs!
- I am in the outdoors
- I get to wear grunge clothes (shorts and a tshirt) to the Nursery job
- I get to work on my tan, particularly my chaco tan line
- I get to listen to my own music on my iPod while working at the Nursery
- I can ride my bike to both jobs
- I get to help and serve the elderly
- My eyes are being opened to the world of what it is like to be old - the pros and cons
- The eldery I work with touch my life with their sweet personalities and spirits and great sense of humor and gratitude.

A few great quotes from a couple of the elderly I work with:

"Stay young for as long as possible! Getting old is hard."

"This plane is hard to fly in the rain. I think we're going to have to take the wings off."

"Old ladies are just antique little girls." (This came from my friend who also works with the elderly - LOVE this quote!).

[When walking into the empty residence's room] "Oh, the bed is occupied. I need to kiss the kittens goodnight."

"Do you want to get into bed with me? I'll move over." [I was asked this when putting one of the male residence to bed....]