A Series of Unfortunate Events

I have no cell phone today.  I didn't break it or drop it in the toilet or anything.  It's simply.....gone.  Here's how that Unfortunate Event came to happen.....

I have spent much of this past week preparing for a garage sale.  Let me tell you, that is a LOT of work.  Sorting thru all the junk gently used items, pricing it all, organizing it all, advertising, making signs......this is not "easy money", folks.  So last night was the big "night before" and I was outside in the garage and on the driveway making sure everything was ready for this morning.  I had my cell phone with me because I was expecting a call or text from my neighbor to let me know she was bringing some things down, and she couldn't just see me from her house.  I set my cell phone on the back bumper of my van, which was sitting in the driveway, and told my husband, "I'm putting my phone right here - don't let me forget!"  That was Unfortunate Event #1.

Band Son had a big band fundraiser last night - a lock-in event that went from 10:00 p.m to 7:00 a.m. this morning.  They call it a "Rockathon" because they rock in rocking chairs all night (and play rocking chair dodgeball, rocking chair volleyball, rocking chair races, etc.).  He had to bring his own rocking chair, which I assumed would be transported to the school in the back of Hubby's truck.  Instead, Band Son loaded his chair into the back of my van, never seeing my phone sitting there on the bumper.  That was Unfortunate Event #2.

I was inside making signs with Drama Daughter when Hubby took Band Son to the school.  I was still thinking that he was taking his truck.  Sometime after he got home I realized I needed my phone, remembered where I left it, and went outside for it.  It was not where I left it, and I then realized that Hubby had driven my van to the high school, forgetting that I had told him to remember my phone was sitting on the back bumper.  That was Unfortunate Event #3.

And so the search began.  Surely it couldn't have made it far, right?  With flashlights, we searched the driveway.  We searched the street out in front of our house.  We searched all the way down our neighborhood street to the intersection with the very busy street.  We searched the intersection. Every so often we would call it from Hubby's phone to see if we could hear it ringing.  No luck.

When daylight came, we searched again.  The phone is gone.  Gone gone gone.

Fortunately I have insurance, and my replacement phone will be here on Monday.  I only had to pay my deductible - $130.  We made $207 at the garage sale.  Our profit is now $77.  Dammit.

**Just for grins, this evening before it got dark we took an old cell phone and put it in the exact place I had left mine on the van, and drove the exact route, watching for when it fell off so we could search that area.  We made it all the way to the high school and back home and that sucker never fell off!!  WTF??