Phone bites the dust

It was a gorgeous spring weekend in Brooklyn and my wife was up at SUNY Binghamton for her nephew’s graduation, so I had the girls to myself. So that meant plenty of park time.

We were at our favorite park and Danielle was doing the monkey bars. They aren’t really monkey bars, more like gymnastics type rings spaced apart so you swing from one to the next. Danielle is pretty good at them and loves doing it.

So of course, I try to take a picture of her doing the rings. When I take pictures with my Incredible, I tend to hold the phone lightly from the bottom (since the lens and flash are on the top). Danielle is doing her thing and I try to time the shot so I can actually see her face while swinging.

I haven’t used the phone enough to have a good feel for the exact time lag between pressing the button and the picture being taken, so this type of action shot is a bit of a crap shoot. So after taking the picture, I’m looking at the phone to see how it turned out. Danielle is, of course, finishing up the rings. I’m not watching her closely.

On the last ring, one of her hands almost slips. She loses balance a bit and her legs go flying to get it back. Her foot executes a perfect punt of the phone right out of my hand. The phone goes flying 20 feet in the air. This part felt like slow motion. I try to catch it. But it’s just out of reach.

Danielle feels terrible, like it’s her fault. Of course it isn’t. I, of course, am upset. But my daughter is more important than my phone (saying a lot about my daughter, because I love the phone) so I lie to her, tell her it’s fine and we go back to playing.

But I could see the hairline cracks in the screen. And the very top part of the screen (the notifications panel) wasn’t working right. I knew it was toast, but at least it looked serviceable until I could get a replacement. I do have insurance on it, so it’s not the end of the world.

Though as the day progressed the screen slowly died. It’s now to the point where you really can’t see anything. I can receive calls, mainly because I know where to press to accept a call. But that’s it.

The replacement arrives Tuesday. Monday will be no fun…