If you spend enough time riding a bike along a highway, as I have over the years, you get to see all sorts of flotsam and jetsam in the ditch as you ride on by. Coffee cups, water bottles, cardboard, bits and pieces of plastic, broken glass, smashed up car parts, old tires, and of course the ubiquitous beer can. Most of these items have been jettisoned out of car windows. I guess people just can't wait to find a garbage/trash/rubbish bin to fling away their used items.
However, the other day as I was on my morning ride, something different appeared in the ditch, a couple of miles from home. In spite of its mangled condition, I recognized it as a smart phone. I decided to stop, and go back and pick it up. Why? My first thought was to take it home and open it up to see what it looked like on the inside. As can been seen by the following images, I don't think it is repairable. :-)
Back in the days when I flew airplanes, one of the first items on the check list after sitting in the cockpit was to look at the maintenance card to see what work may have been done on the aircraft and also to see if there were any unserviceable items, and if there were, these were marked U/S which denoted unserviceable. From the appearance of this smart phone I would definitely have to say that in my professional opinion, it is well and truly U/S.
Then, a couple of days later as I was on my homeward bound journey, I saw this item in the ditch.
Again, I rode on by, but then my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned around and stopped to pick it up. It was obviously a battery of some sort. I got back on my bike and had only peddled a few more feet along the road when I saw this.
Both items were manufactured by Samsung. Hmmmm, I wonder if they fit together? Sure enough, I popped the battery into the back of the cell phone and voila, it powered up nicely, and I now have myself a working phone. But now what to do? I guess I could keep it, but I don't want a cell phone. I doubt if I could ever find the owner. That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. And besides, why would someone throw a cell phone out of their car window? In fact, it appears that two separate individuals threw two separate phones out of windows on two separate days. What are the odds?
How ironic that the man who choses to live life without a cell phone, now has two of them. The smart phone will be heading for the garbage, but I am not quite sure what to do with the Samsung phone. Perhaps the owner will call, and I can drop it off somewhere for them. Who knows? Seeing as we live in a world where people seem to have their entire life wrapped up in their cell phone, I imagine that there is someone out there who would like to get their phone back. I guess I'll wait and see if it rings, and take it from there.
On a totally unrelated matter, July 25th was an anniversary of sorts for The Thoughtful Wanderer. Back on that day in 1991, at the Brighton Town Hall in Melbourne Australia, I became an Australian citizen. The town hall was packed with a number of people like myself all becoming newly minted Aussie citizens, and there was a gallery of friends and family members in attendance to witness the proceedings. Although celebratory, the mood was also very serious, serious that is until my friend Jacqueline while watching me accept my citizenship certificate from the Mayor, yelled out, "Good on ya mate." That brought the house down in fits of laughter, and I think it was appreciated by all in attendance. The ceremony was followed up by a party back at my place, with plenty of friends, plenty of drinks, and plenty of Aussie foods. It certainly was a memorable evening. Wow, an entire quarter of a century ago. You know you're getting older when...
Time now to head back out to the garden to continue working on my latest project.
living a life of profound acceptance,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
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