A MINI-DISASTER, DIVERTED? DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA
In an email I received today, my friend Sue commented on how much she enjoyed sitting in the Jacuzzi at her RV park here in Desert Hot Springs last night, watching the clouds blow by overhead. She added that the swimming pool there is kept quite warm, so it can be enjoyed even during our current cool-and-cloudy spell.
When Odel and I went out for our morning walk and passed the common area, we decided to check out the temperature of OUR spas and swimming pool. I dipped my fingers into each of the Jacuzzis, then bent down to check the water temperature in the swimming pool. As I put my hands on the edge of the pool to hoist myself back up (butt first, I guess), I heard a small splash and saw my cell phone float through the water to land on the bottom of the three cement steps. Uh-oh!
Talk about eyes bugging out: Odel hadn’t seen the phone take a dive, he’d only seen me suddenly decide to go for a dip, fully clothed. Now I stood beside him, dripping wet but for my head and left arm, clutching my phone and looking woebegone.
Get this: my phone still worked! After squishing back home in dripping wet clothes and shoes, I decided to take the battery out and dry everything off. Well, that was apparently a bad idea. When I replaced the battery, things weren’t going so well and the phone wouldn’t come back to life.
To the computer! I googled “dropped my phone in water” and followed the recommended steps, including putting the phone in a container of rice to draw out the water inside.
Meanwhile, I got on Odel’s phone and called Verizon. I am eligible for a phone upgrade on Christmas Day, and managed to talk them into letting me upgrade early since they won’t be open on Christmas. That accomplished (with only three phone calls), I decided to get the phone out of its bed of rice and give it one more chance and – guess what? It is working again!
We’ll be stopping by the Verizon store tomorrow to do the early upgrade (if possible), since the phone is making some unusual sounds. Still, it’s been a reasonably good outcome for what looked to be a mini-disaster in the making. Now we need to finish up our walk. :)
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Even though they seem to come back to life, they usually do strange things. It's better to go ahead and get a new one. Been there, done that, only I just dropped mine into the kitchen sink and had the tap running - no standing water even!
ReplyDeleteCellphones + water = dead phone!! Glad you're due to get a new one! Sure hope the weather down there improves in the next 2 or 3 weeks!!
ReplyDeleteYou might want to keep it in the rice if you have things on it that you would like to transfer to your new phone! Ironically, I had just read an article about what to do if this happened and was thinking OH, OH as I read, but you beat me to it by going online!! But that's a good thing, as Martha would say!!
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!
Hilarious! I bet Odel COULD NOT IMAGINE what on earth you were doing! Glad everything is going to work out.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, we have had 4.83 inches of rain - so far - in 3 days, and it is not really supposed to stop much until Thursday! The outflow from our lake looks like whitewater!
That is one of the reasons, we always save our phones from our most recent upgrade and keep them until the next one...just in case it takes a dive anywhere.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Laurie!!!I keep my cell phone tucked into my bra. It has never dropped out yet.
ReplyDeleteOops! Good thing you were up for a new phone!
ReplyDeleteGreat story Laurie--one of my nurses in my previous life dropped her beeper into the toilet at the same time she hit the flush lever--at least your story is going to have a happy ending!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should have made a quick call to Jacques Cousteau while it was underwater. Wonder if the dial tone might have played, 'Cool Water' if you had tried it in the pool. Good thing the park management didn't come running out waving their arms shouting, "no swimming in the pool with your clothes on lady!!"
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that too, but mine fell into a big puddle under the front of my 5th wheel in a rainstorm. Got it dried out (didn't know the rice trick) and had it checked at the Verizon store. They said the contact points might start to corrode and if they did I could get a new phone under my insurance coverage, which I eventually did a few months later.
ReplyDeleteYou deserve a new phone, anyway! Will you get a smart one?
So, how was the temperature of the water after all that?? :)
ReplyDeleteLaurie, are you and I related...maybe in a former life??? That totally sounded like something I would do!! I feel your pain...left my phone out in rain once....and it never was the same...Good hint about the rice, tho...You never know when I will do something to kill my phone again...
ReplyDeleteWow you would not want to jump in any water around here right now (it is below freezing), you would not be a happy camper Laurie!
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to travel the country the way you guys are and wish you a Merry Christmas and continued happy voyaging!
Tina xo
Only those of us that have seen our phone take that mis fortunate plunge have any idea of what instantly goes thru you mind as your brain computes the fact!
ReplyDeleteOur sympathies are with you! Thank goodness you are out far enough to take advantage of new every two!
Glad you got the phone working! My niece got hers wet and did the same thing and it worked too!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
I would marry Google if I could! So happy you are back to traveling and posting.~Judy
ReplyDeleteWhoah. I'm just imagining what it would be like if Ayo and I were walking next to a pool and she suddenly jumped in with her clothes on, freaking out about something that I had no clue about!
ReplyDeleteJust saw a program on Square Trade for ins. on the phones. Maybe I'll check that out just in case I drop the phone.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy your blogs, keep them coming.
I could have used that rice treatment a few weeks ago when the TV remote got dropped in the kitchen sink. It did eventually dry out, but it took a couple of days to work right.
ReplyDeleteA hint to remember.
Oh we will all be so smart by the time we die
Hey Laurie,
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time for that Droid!!
See you soon!