Communication Breakdown

No long trip, or other large undertaking for that matter, can ever go off without a hitch. I think it's some kind of unwritten rule, like a law of nature, or some such nuisance.

But hey, why put things off? Why not get your "hitch" out of the way early, freak out, get it over with... then you can relax, settle down, and enjoy the rest of your trip? Great plan, right? Well, that's exactly what I did.

My son was riding with me, so that he could drop me off at Detroit Metro Airport (which is, ironically, about 15 miles from Detroit... but I digress) and take my car back home. Although we didn't realize it at the time, when we'd only traveled about two miles from home, my cell phone decided that it had had enough of riding on top of the car, and leapt to its death on the unforgiving pavement below.

If we had been aware of my phone's suicidal departure, we could have at least saved the SIM card (and thus, saved all of my phone numbers). But alas, this was not to be. It was not until seven or eight miles down the road, right about the time we were entering the airport complex, when my Bluetooth gave me the "Help, I can't find the phone" tone. At first, I thought to myself, "That's peculiar" (in my head, I can hear Eddie Murphy doing his bit about the Amityville Horror). After about 10 seconds of that, a realization slowly came over me:

"Oh shiite, where's my cell phone?"

(Insert freaking out here.)

OK, all is not lost. Breathe.

My son will call the phone company, explain what happened, and get a replacement phone shipped to me in Scotland. I will have him email me all the important family phone numbers, so all I have to do is hit an Internet cafe in Glasgow tomorrow.

But, as of this moment, I feel disconnected. I don't even know what time it is, as I haven't worn a watch in years. Looks like I'll be buying a cheap watch and a cheap alarm clock in Glasgow (as my cell phone had previously performed these functions).

Oy.