iPhone - I hardly knew ye

During a trip with my son to the allergist's today (he's fine - no allergies, just parents who need to slather him with yak butter and Crisco more often) my iPhone fell out of my pocket and under a chair in the waiting room. At the same time, Finn was initiating an investigation the stash of chemicals beneath the waiting-room fish tank. Figuring the iPhone was the less immediate poisoning risk at that moment, I lunged for him instead.

Not sure, in retrospect, that was a good call.

Though I have given away the punchlines to both storylines above, I was, please realize, on tenterhooks about the imminent results of the allergy scratch-test Finn had taken 20 minutes earlier. Just as I got a hand on Finn, the doctor emerged from his lair and announced that it was time to check the lad's allergy-sample-raked back.

I picked Finn up and followed the doctor to the examination room. Good news! No allergies. That was that. We headed out into the blazing San Francisco heat (no joke). "Bye, doctor!" Finn said.  We stopped at the corner to pick up a chilly chocolate milk for Finn (because he was truly a trooper for the entire slightly icky business), and then headed for the car. Where I realized I didn't have the phone and remembered that it had been lying under a waiting-room chair last I saw it.

Got Finn back out of the car seat and headed back down the block to the allergist's office. No sign of the phone under the chair. The staff was helpful, gamely searching around the waiting room, doctor's office and examination room, but it was sinking in: someone had palmed my outboard brain, probably one of the half-dozen people sitting in the room as I was searching for it! All denied having seen it.

Okay, point 1: idiot. Pick up the phone right away next time, or remember to pick it up before leaving the room at the very least. Agreed.

But, point 2: it was a doctor's office waiting room, not the subway or the back seat of a cab. Finders keepers and all that, but come on. Guy, there with his kid...nothing? Reception desk four feet away, you find an iPhone on the floor, and you pocket it? Evil.

Drove home, reported phone lost & stolen, shutting it down; checked my phone and email accounts on the Web, no calls or emails to or from the phone since the separation. So now what? Well, the word is a super-sweet new iPhone is coming out in a few weeks. Plus the current ones are sold out, at least online. They're trying to push all the old ones out as fast as possible, it looks like. So Im' scrounging around our house for discarded cell phones, finding a couple, and readying to head to the store and rig up a beater to use until the 3-G iPhone comes out.

Comments

[MQMurphy]

Aaaaawwwww . . . bummer on the phone and the illustration of humankind's weakness (lameness).
Enjoy the new one.

[MF]

Bummer for the phone, but great news about Finn. Being a lifetime allergy sufferer akin to Josh Saviano's character on The Wonder Years, I'm glad to see the McHughs continue to be made of strong stuff.