Early Saturday morning, I went to give our puppy Fitzroy a bath. As we were getting into the elevator in our building, my phone slipped out of my pocket and fell directly into the open slot at the bottom of the elevator door, plummeting 80 feet into the cavern below our building. A rough start to the day. Fortunately, a few hours later, a super helpful elevator maintenance guy appeared, temporarily locking the elevator door on the garage floor of the building and climbing down a short ladder to retrieve the device. The plastic case protecting the phone had separated from the device and was cracked in a few places. The back of the phone itself, however, was spectacularly shattered. Miraculously though, the front screen was perfectly preserved and the device almost completely functional, except for a faulty volume button. Meaning…I could still access my Army Navy tickets(!) and despite a very rough end of the day for Army, I had a great time at the game seeing classmates & friends and celebrating the camadererie that comes from service and shared sacrifice. Congrats to Navy on a great game! We’ll beat you next year. I got a new phone yesterday, and importantly, Fitz got a bath.
Happy that all ended well Jen. I had somewhat similar situation. On my vacation in Florida with my family, my rental car key slipped through my fingers and fell straight into the narrow opening of the sewer. What a long day it was!
Now that would be a helluva Apple commercial. I'm calling Tim Cook's guys to see about that! Speaking of guys, who's that good looking young man on your phone 😊 Can't believe it's been 20 years (+) since I saw him at Ft. Meade....GO ARMY 🏈 #awesomemon
And Apple had your back! ;) Yes, absolutely! Apple had her back just like Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump—even when things seemed to fall apart (literally), the phone’s functionality held strong, allowing her to carry on with her plans. The phone’s resilience mirrors Lt. Dan’s enduring spirit, staying in the fight despite the odds. This story is a perfect blend of mishap, humor, and triumph, much like Lt. Dan’s journey. Apple, in this case, played the role of the dependable ally, ensuring the mission (Army-Navy tickets and Fitz’s bath) could still be accomplished despite the rough start.
So what you’re saying is that your phone was secure, by design.
#ARMYSTRONG!!! Matt Sunderland- your TI-85 looked worse than this after slipping off your desk before our Calc II Term End Exam #BEATtheDEAN
An example of Resilience during an event, we need to have services available to us at the minimal viable level. The camera and the glass on the back of the case was not needed to get your tickets, the path to full recovery was available, practiced and tested by the parties responsible, and exercised.
So your phone is the reason we lost? Next year, I'm hiring a personal valet for you for Army Navy week. #GoArmy 😏
Reminds me of some of the really old TV commercials for Timex watches. They would put them through some test and then say, "....and it keeps on ticking". See if you can find the one where they attached the watch to a boat propeller in a tank. It flew off when they started the motor and they never did find it....
bummed to miss you at the game...and afterwards...but thrilled you got your phone issues sorted out in time to catch the fun. Will catch you on the next merge!
Jen Easterly I’ve been there. One time my Motorola StarTAC (remember those?) slipped out of my hand when I was getting off an airplane and it slipped through the gap between the plane and the jet bridge down to the runway. The pilot went and retrieved it for me and it was broken in half with some wires connecting the two sides. I had the ignominy of using the phone in two pieces like a 1920s phone for the rest of the day. At least back then there was nothing of value on it 😀