The long weekend was very satisfying. I had a lot of quality time with friends and family. Jami and I were able to connect and make progress on AuroraNightOut. My political junkie heart was warm from good conversation with Max and Leslie. Sister and sibling breakfasts were easy and relaxed. Children pulled off a great party. Grandchildren were grand. Friends were present and a good time was had by all.
Late Monday afternoon I spent time with Aunt Norma in her senior resident apartment. We laughed and talked. I enjoyed our time together. I have been thinking about retirement abodes and was impressed with her living quarters and building. Keri is only several miles away.
Tuesday morning we set out for home. Sam was tired of his car seat and not eating very well either. We traveled as fast as the law allowed and were trying to keep our stops to a minimum. About ¾’s of the way through the trip we stopped to give Sam his milk cup. I decided to run in to a convenience truck stop. Somehow my T-Mobile G2 Android phone fell to the ground at the curb in front of the store. Not realizing the loss, I went on in and bought chips and soda for Sam’s mom and me. Sam and his mom pulled down to the end of the store’s front concrete riser.
My daughter saw a trucker come out and pick up something at the curb. She realized it was my pink gel-covered phone. The trucker turned and went back into the store. When I came out she rolled her window down and asked me if I got my phone. She indicated that a man had picked it up and taken it in the store. I went back in one door and the trucker came out the other. His hands were empty.
He did not turn in the phone and he disappeared into one of the half a dozen semi’s parked in the vicinity. After my daughter described him to me, I remembered him from inside the store. She and I were a little stunned he had not turned the phone in. She did not understand why he would have looked down at the phone, pick it up, shake his head and go back into the store if he was not going to turn it in. Good questions. I do not know the answers. I do know the truckers in my family would have turned the phone in; my dad, my uncle, my cousins, my dad’s trucker friends.
The next few hours were kind of a mini-nightmare. I had T-Mobile Customer Care and then the insurance company on the phone in the rolling hills of eastern Iowa where calls are dropped in every valley. Service was immediately terminated. I kept getting the automated insurance information. It took awhile to figure out I needed a police report, officer name and badge number. Really? In eastern Iowa? Not a town in sight?
Thirty minutes later we found the right sheriff’s department and the dispatcher listened to our story and called the sheriff’s deputy on the radio. He had her take our name and number and said he would call me back. We could proceed on to our homes. A big sigh of relief because by this time we were sitting at the I- 80 Illinois Welcome Center parking lot looking at the Mississippi and did not want to turn around and go back an hour.
We arrived home several hours later than previously expected. It is now five days later and I am still not completely over the experience. My “new” phone did not arrive until three days later.My contact numbers are missing. I had wonderful pictures of grandchildren, Mr. K, friends, family. I have to set up email, calendar, twitter, FaceBook again.
I am grateful we are safe and home. The memories of the visit are still warm and wonderful. I know in the grand scheme of life we are lucky the phone is all we lost. I am not sure exactly why I feel something else was lost, I just know I do……………….
©2011 Susan Kendall. All rights reserved
