Thomas Garcia: Dealing with cell phone woes

QCS Columnist

You know what can frazzle the nerves of a journalist more than having four must-complete assignments due in one day? Having his cell phone break on the same day.

This isn’t one of those hypothetical scenario columns that asks the question of how cell-phone dependent one person has become.

It’s a column about a journalist whose majority of contacts used for work is on the very phone that has stopped working.

The ultimate nightmare, for myself and so many: the death of the cell phones.

On the bright side, I have all of my contact, photos, movies and other items saved to my 16GB microSD card. That’s right I have a 16GB microSD card and it is almost full.

So let me walk you through what happened.

I was getting out of the car at a gas station; I reached into my pockets to get some change to buy a 44-ounce un-sweet tea. Yes the tea was un-sweet and I actually bought a tea. I’ve been bad and have had one too many sodas this past month and need to kick them again.

Back to my story: As I was pulling out my phone to search for the change, the phone slipped from my hand and fell to the concrete bellow.

The phone did not skip, bounce or even shift in the slightest. It simply went thud and in doing so I knew this was going to be bad.

The impact did not shatter the outer screen, it destroyed the inner screen to the point where the display does not work.

I of course attempted to work on it to get it to work once again seeing as I’m a fully licensed and trained phone repair technician (I’m not in any shape, form or fashion).

After 30 minutes of poking, cursing, praying and removing the battery several times it was my expert opinion that the phone was in fact dead.

I clutched the phone and held it tight, crying out “why have the gods forsaken me?”

Then I remembered earlier this month I had posted a comment about my less then stellar experience with my provider’s customer service. Was this karma or perhaps did I anger a sleeping wireless god?

I did manage to secure a new phone, and it will be shipped to me soon.

I intend to visit a fireworks stand to get the proper supplies to give my old phone a Viking funeral of sorts.

It may have been a valued tool for work, a way to keep in touch with family and friends and means to archive many moments and events, but it was also a royal pain in the backside. So it’s only fitting it goes out with a bang.

Thomas Garcia is a senior writer at the Quay County Sun. He can be reached at [email protected]