My cell phone is with me pretty much at all times, except when I sleep. The other day, I was chopping hay and, of course, had my cell right next to me in a little carrier of sorts. This day, for one reason or another, I had not slipped it into the same compartment that I always put it into.
My husband and I had just exchanged wagons. I shifted to low third, slapped on my ear protector, engaged the power take off, adjusted the spout, eased my foot off the clutch and brought the throttle up to full power. Guiding the tractor along my hay row, I glanced to my right to make sure my phone was there. It was not! Panic set in.
I remembered a few years ago I lost my phone as I was dragging a field. The field was very bumpy and the phone was on a ledge in the cab, not too secure (silly girl). It jarred lose and slipped right off and I must have dragged it deep into the dirt because I never did find that one.
Later, after my husband knew I was over the trauma of losing my cell, he quipped, “There were a couple of deer out in that field you dragged. I think they were talking on your cell phone!”
So this time I was in a full-blown panic. I cannot lose another cell phone on a tractor! I shifted into park. Looking down past a bunch of levers, I spotted the pink backing of my cell. It was there! Sweet relief. But now how to get it out?
I poked and prodded and tried to squeeze my hand into the narrow slot, all to no avail. I needed to keep going; my husband would be back soon with an empty wagon. I continued to chop, all the while glancing down, flip-flopping between relief that I could see it and dismay that I couldn’t reach it.
When I got the wagon full, I powered everything down, parked and unhooked. Grabbing a slim tool, I tried to slide it into the slender area and push my cell toward the front where there was another slim opening. The tool wasn’t long enough!
Presently, I heard my husband returning. He took one look at my face and said, “What’s the matter?” I’m pretty sure he figured I broke something.
“My cell phone slid down there!” I exclaimed in utter dismay, pointing to the space below the hydraulic levers.
Much to my surprise he took some time right then and there to try to fish it out. No tool in the tractor’s toolbox was long enough so he took his jackknife and hacked off a stalk of corn! It was long enough but not rigid enough. Finally, we just had to give up and continue chopping; we only have until chore time and then must shut everything down to begin feeding and to milk cows.
The rest of the afternoon, I was constantly looking at that unreachable pink-backed cell phone. It was maddening. I am very disturbed at how much I panicked that day. I have come to realize that I depend on that phone much more than I ever thought I did. A couple of times I’ve started out on errands and realizing I had forgotten my cell at home, turned around and went after it! It’s nuts.
I don’t tweet or snap chat, but I like Facebook on my phone. I text and send pictures. I play an ongoing game of “Words with Friends” with my middle one. He wins almost every time. Once in a while I pull one out and let him know. He comes back with: “Every now and then a blind squirrel finds a nut, Mom.”
I’m sure I don’t utilize everything I could on my cell, but I do what I can. If I can’t figure something out, I wait until a kid comes home and they scroll up, scroll down, tap, tap, tap, fix it and hand it back, “There you go, Mom.” I wish they’d explain what they do so I don’t have to depend on my kid to fix my phone.
So my precious cell spent the entire night in the tractor, in the shed. Unknown to me, the next morning after chores my husband took the long end of a broken cow trainer and fished it out. I was setting the breakfast table, fussing in my head about my cell. The thought crossed my mind I should text a couple of people that I don’t have my cell, and then it dawned on me I couldn’t text them because I didn’t have my cell! Right then, he walked in from the barn and handed me that phone.
My jaw dropped. I hugged him. Barn clothes and all.
(“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.” Philippians 2:3-4)
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