First go to a small mountain stream 20 miles from your house. Slip and fall in at very first spot. Empty water from hip boot but enjoy the 56 degrees cool off. Proceed up stream about a quarter mile or more in the next two hours. Walk back to truck for lunch and decide to call wife to tell her how you’re doing. Reach for phone and discover it’s missing. Go down to stream where you fell in and peer into water and find no phone there. Put on tennies and retrace steps alongside stream and again find no phone. Drive 20 miles home and call your cell number from wife’s phone and get a ring most likely indicating your phone does not now reside on stream bottom. Drive 20 miles back to stream and start walking alongside it redialing your cell number after every six rings because if there’s no answer it goes to voicemail or “leave a message” status. All the while, hoping that you might be able to hear your cell ring over the stream noise. Get to where you exited the stream back to the road without hearing an answering ring. Say prayer or a few nasty words about your stupidity. (Knew I should have put that #$%^&* phone in my pocket instead of using that @#$%^&* belt clip.) Decide to give it one more try. On second try start hearing a very faint ring back towards stream. Retrace steps and hear a couple more rings before it fades out. Go further back, about 20 yards, and closer to stream. Start back towards road but circle around stand of nasty green briars this time. Redial once again. Start hearing your cellphone on first ring this time. Walk forward about ten yards and on fourth ring it sounds like you should be right on it. Take two more steps and look down at sixth ring and voila’ - there it is at last! Pick up your cell and call wife on home number knowing she’ll see your cell number pop up on caller ID on the TV screen.
Cost of gas to and from extra 40 miles driven - about $4.58.
Cost of extra time spent not being able to fish while trying to find cellphone - nothing.
Finding lost cellphone while trouting - priceless!
If you keep your home phone in memory stored under “Home”, the good samaritan who finds it may call you and tell you how to get your phone back. Actually happened to me. Down side is there are bad samaritans out there.
Bobinmich - I do have the home phone number stored in contact list as “Home”; so, hope a good person finds it next time it’s lost.
Went to the phone store Friday to get replacement batteries for our two cellphones and, would you believe it, they wanted $45.00 + tax for each battery because our phones were almost two years old. Plus, they weren’t in stock and would take five business days to ship!
Then the salesman says we can get two brand new phones, home and vehicle chargers for about the same price as the two batteries. No way says I and he tallies up a cost of $85.00 + tax for the deal. Needed a new case and that was 20% off for a grand total of $106.80. And the new two year contract started Friday instead of July 25th when the old one ran out. Was thinking about replacing the phones in July anyway.
This week we’re also replacing the old home phone with a new cell and base phone and retaining our old home number. Old cost without long distance was about $534.00 a year and the new phone after an intial purchase price of $29.99 for the phone will be about $120.00 a year + tax for service. Another no-brainer coming up.:mrgreen:
I actually bought my first cell phone for a little added safety and insurance in the event of a bad fall or bad people while fishing. On my first trip after the purchase, I discovered that there is absolutely no signal within fifteen miles of my favorite river. I guess I could crawl fifteen miles with my broken leg and then call.
GMM, loved your story but I’m amazed you had a signal 8T
Fun story-I usually leave the cell back at the vehicle. I have slipped an gotten the keys soaked before. What a pain that ended up being. I shorted out the chip in the key so as I could not get the vehicle started. So now days I worry more about having the keys wrapped in a baggy.
My wife found a cell phone on a walking trail in a state park day before yesterday. The owners husband called the number shortly after. It was a slider and my wife did not know how to open it at first but figgered it out by the second call. The owner came and picked it up at our camp site that afternoon.
I must say it was a nice cell phone, not like the cheap stuff I buy. Playing with it before the owner came it had a feeling of quality with all the bells and whistles like internet browser, GPS and video camera with easy to negotiate menu. But mine does make phone calls.
Its foolish to keep a found cell phone. After the owner reports it lost and does what is necessary to transfer account info and number to a new phone the old phone can never be activated again…the ESN is blocked.
I lived in eastern europe for 6 years, and sometimes I miss that. I had trouble finding a place where there was no reception, in fact the average was 4 of 5 bars. If it dipped to two bars, you were way out there, and I think there were only 5 places in the country that had no reception, and I only found one of them. Dang.
I remember when I moved back to Canada, I went to get an account with a local provide I asked if they had any 3G phones (they were very popular at the time in europe). The guy at the store say “3G? What’s that?” I explained that 3G was the next generation of GSM network and it was a great system. He says that that’ll never come here, because GSM is a limited system with no range. The connection quality is poor and the phones are junk. That’s what he said, and this was 4 years ago. Now… you can’t go anywhere without hearing about 3G and how it’s soooooo much better. Wow, we’re only 4 years behind the rest of the world.
Dave
PS - once a phone has been locked, it’s actually fairly simple to crack the lock and make it work on any network. Just have to know a hack or two to get that done for you.
If I lost my cell phone, I’D be lost. Mine is used mostly for business and being “contactable” at all times is invaluable to me. I agree they can be a PIA but when used “politely” they’re indispensable.
AND, with the right applications, you can browse FAOL anytime too
Hey Marco, have you ever inadvertently closed your laptop with that little kitten in the way? Did it break the screen? I’d be apt to do that, very apt in fact.
Hey there Doftya, ( curious as to WHAT " doftya" means?)
Funny you should ask regarding the " kitten". Fortunately it is large enough the not be overlooked when closing the laptop top. It’s a gift to me from a Japanese customer’s 5 yr old little cutie girl. I’ve placed it in that prominent place for about a year now ( with NO problem).
Where is Ajax Ontario?. On July 18, I will be in Chatham-Kent Ontario to do a bit of “lure dragging” lake fishing for whatever is eating at the time.
Hey Mark, Ajax is just a little east of Toronto. Around that time, if your running downriggers, you can get some nice fish. That’s in the big lakes, but smaller ones will still have a lot to offer. You just have to find the right structure and you could be pulling fish all day.
And about the Doftya thing… I used to live in Manitoba, and there’s a lot of Mennonites out there. I got to know a lot of people with German-Mennonite background. Rumor has it that Doft is the low-German equivalent of Dave, while Doftya would be something like Davey. Since my name is Dave, it fit, and it’s not the worst nickname I’ve had. Low-German is something different, lots of slang, and that accent is definitely something that is mockable. Good thing that most Mennonites have a very good sense of humor.
lol
It never works for me and I usually find mine by sheer luck…if I ever do.
The reason is because I tend to keep it on “vibrate” as I can never hear it ring outdoors or with any significant background noise…like a babbling brook.
It’s great for instant notification but just doesn’t do much for finding it laying around…
:idea:
After losing my last one for a month, buying a brand new one, then finding my old one 2 days later, I decided this game is getting too expensive so I’m considering having it surgically implanted.:shock:
Actually the Bluetooth earpiece that was included w/ my Razr comes in very handy for times like fishing because I can:
-secure the phone very well since I won’t need to access it quickly
-have the 'hands free" advantage.
