What A Day

Setting: Borders Book Store in Stamford. Drinking a Oreo Cookie Javakula, listening to yesterday’s Opie and Anthony show on my new iPhone. Across the street at Town Fair Tire is my year old Audi S4 waiting in line to have all four tires replaced. It’s almost 4 o’clock the day before Thanksgiving and I’ve got about 2 hours to kill.

Yesterday, I lost my iPhone. As a sign of how far I’ve progressed in life, I’m now capable of randomly losing toys that cost upwards of $600. My, how far I’ve come.

What’s weird is how I know someone else now enjoys the company of my old iPhone. It was around lunch time yesterday that I realized I didn’t know where my phone was. I assumed I might have left it in my car. Every time I called the iPhone throughout the day, my calls went straight to voicemail. Since my car was parked in the basement of the parking garage, I was hopeful the phone was there as I know I can’t get reception when I park my car in the basement. Still, when I did a thorough search of the car, I was unable to find the iPhone.

So I get home and walk across the street to the Lynch’s to get my wife’s phone. Karen was having some sort of jewelry party and my wife was in attendance. I planned on getting her phone and calling my phone in the hopes of hearing it ring in the car. When I told Kristine that I hadn’t seen the phone since before lunch she said, “But you responded to my text about the paint brushes”.

Sure enough, according to Kristine’s iPhone, she sent me a text a little after 5pm asking if I needed her to pick me up some paint brushes. Just after 6pm, she received a text from my iPhone saying “no”. I spent the next half hour trying to call and text my iPhone in the hopes of getting it back. My calls continued to go straight to voicemail and my text’s went unanswered. Unable to reach my phone’s new owner, I called AT&T and thru their automated system, I deactivated the iPhone.

Before I made the call, I did a little research and found out some things about what happens when an AT&T phone is reported lost or stolen. First, while the phone aspect of the iPhone stops working, every other aspect including the web browsing and the iPod functions will continue to work. For those of you who don’t know, when you buy an iPhone, nothing about it works until you set up a phone account with AT&T. That means unless you pony up for a two contract with AT&T, the iPhone serves no purpose. However, since I’ve already activated my phone, whoever has it will have full use of the iPhone sans the phone. THAT IS,...

...unless he or she signs up an AT&T account. If I understand correctly, the person who has my phone has the option of using the phone if he or she wants to sign up for a 2 year contract. Although AT&T will be well aware where my lost/sort of stolen (I guess technically, it’s not a stolen phone but there’s a person out there who has my $600 phone who knows who I am and knows I want it back.) phone is the moment the iPhone gets activated for phone service, AT&T won’t do anything about it. AT&T won’t tell me my phone has appeared on the grid, nor will they notify the authorities. Oh well.

I just had a thought. Let’s say I’m a trusting idiotic sort who parks his car in a parking lot, leaves the car unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Now, I’ve done a stupid thing but unless I’m mistaken, if someone gets into my car and drives away with it, then they’ve stolen my car. Just thinking out loud.

So here’s the thing. I probably would be more bent out of shape about the iPhone if it weren’t for the fact that on my way home from the Stamford Apple Store, having purchased my new iPhone, my driver’s side front tire went flat on the Merrit Parkway.

If you’ve never been on the Merrit, the Parkway is a very woodsy 2 lane highway with no street lights and not a lot of shoulder room. It’s been years since I’ve changed a flat tire and today’s vehicles are slightly more complicated than the piss yellow ’85 Chevette I drove in high school. The tires of today have things like keys and things that need to be pealed off. I cannot stress this enough. Thank God I befriended Tim Lynch my senior year of high school and Thank God we now live across the street from each other.

I called the Lynch’s home to let my wife know I’d be running a little later that I thought. I also called the Lynch’s home because I had Kristine’s iPhone which I almost hadn’t taken with me but decided to just in case of an emergency. Phew! Well, I got Karen and Karen told Tim and 15 minutes later, Tim showed up with flashlights and a great attitude.

Tim is a wealth of information when it comes to cars and he explained to me that it’s a good idea to have at least a little tread on your tires when driving on roads. A little tread is a little more that what I had on my tires and thus, the front driver’s tire had simply given up after I had hit a small bump in the left lane on the Merrit Parkway.

One of the more interesting aspects of the ordeal was the presence of a state police officer who parked in the right lane to protect us from oncoming cars as we replaced the tire. When I think of the trouble Tim and I used to get into as younger people...well, generally we were keeping an eye out for the cops because seeing police officers would mean there was a problem.

However it seems that when an officer of the law sees two thirtysomething guys, one driving an Audi and the other driving a Prius, fixing a tire on the side of the Merrit Parkway at 10:30 at night...Well, then a police officer is your best friend. Before he showed up, I thought I might not make it home. There’s no streetlights on the Merrit and the cars were coming very close even though we were 2 cars with our lights on and our hazard lights blinking. It’s one of the few times in my life I’ve felt the reassuring security I’ve heard a police officer can provide. The officer never left his car and when we were done, I gave the policeman a thankful saluting wave. Over his PA, he said, “No problem gentlemen,” and pulled away after Tim and I had safely driven off the shoulder and onto the highway.

So that was my yesterday. I should wander back to check on my car. My super thanx go out to my buddy Tim as well as the Connecticut police officers who patrol our roads and keep us safe. You are all very awesome.

Also congratulations to the winner of the Find Dave’s Dropped iPhone and Keep It Contest. I will be able to go on without it and well...I guess if it’s something you need to make your life a little better, then I guess I’ve done some good in your life. Instead of harboring bitterness, I’m going to chalk this up to some Karma Credit and hope that it brings you all the joy that it bought me.

Until next time.
Dave