Damaged Devices and Happy Endings

We've been on a roll the last few months with damaging electronic devices...

It started in May when Kanyon took Jonah's iPod in a moment of anger. He said he hid it under the couch, so we took that sectional apart 3 times searching for the iPod, but to no avail. So Kanyon had to give Jonah his iPod as a replacement.

In June, Josh dropped his smart phone on a camping trip, and it shattered the screen. The phone still worked, but the screen was black. I took it to Idaho Falls the next day, and paid over $100 to have the screen replaced, and it worked like new again.

In June, Micah dropped his iPod on the cement pad by the back door, and it cracked the screen. He didn't want to pay the price to replace the screen, so he's been using it cautiously since.

In July, Ammon dropped his phone and his screen cracked as well, making it hard to use. Josh bought him a cheap, used replacement phone (it was an identical make to his phone) which was a good solution to the problem.

At the end of July, Ammon lost his iPod while on a ride at Silverwood. He was in a rolling cage ferris wheel with Jonah, and as they turned upside down one time, the iPod flew out of his pocket and out of sight. We searched the ground all around the ride, but couldn't find it. We looked inside the cage he'd been in, but didn't see it there either. He thinks it may have fallen in between the cracks inside the cage, and that it's still somewhere inside the ride, but inaccessible unless the ride is taken apart.

In August, Josh accidentally sent his cell phone through the washing machine. It was in the pocket of his pants and he didn't realize it until after it had already gone through the spin cycle. He put it in rice for 2 days, but it never came back to life. It was a difficult time for him...he tried to get a used replacement phone in town, but the sim card he had from his dead phone didn't fit into it. So he bought another used phone, and had the same problem. So he went to a cell phone store in Montana to get a sim card to fit the new used phones he'd just purchased, but they wouldn't work inside either of the phones he bought. So he went and bought a trac phone, and had the same problem. He was furious with all these attempts to replace his phone, and ultimately just decided to switch plans from AT&T to Verizon. Which worked out nicely for both Ammon and I, because up until then, we'd both been using older style flip phones, but when we switched to Verizon, we both got to upgrade to smart phones for the same monthly price we were paying before without having them! I got a mini smart phone, Ammon got an iPhone, and Josh got a new Samsung Galaxy. Josh has been training me on how to use it, and Ammon has been loving his new iPhone and taking good care of it, and doesn't even miss his iPod anymore.

And then one lucky day in September, I found Jonah's missing iPod--the one that has been mysteriously gone since May. It was under a box in Kanyon's closet, and it was just a stroke of luck that I found it there. Kanyon of course doesn't even remember putting it there (his brain doesn't work right during his angry fits). Jonah was so happy to have his iPod back (it's one generation newer than Kanyon's, which is what he's been using the last 4 months)! And that meant Kanyon got to have his iPod returned to him, too.

Although there's been a lot of frustration and expenses with these lost and destroyed devices, everyone seems to be happy lately for how things have turned out (well, except for Micah who still has a cracked iPod screen!).