The one up side is now I have a new pooper scooper.

by teresa

Some of you have been wondering about my cellphone mishap.
Were we able to retrieve it?
Uhhh...nope.
But we sure gave it a heck of a try.
Nick, Ben and I set off for "the chick" with a crow bar and a pickax.
I didn't want to bring the pickax(I was afraid people would think we were insane), but Nick insisted it was a much needed tool.
We parked near the sewer opening and staked it out for awhile.
Most people I know shop and dine in that area of town, and I did NOT want to be spotted doing what we were planning to do.
Once the coast was clear (or as clear as a chick-fil-a gets around dinner time) we hopped out of the car with a plan.
Nick was going to use the crow bar to lift the grate, and I was going to look for my phone. Once spotted I was going to (hopefully) be able to reach it. There was a ledge, so I was holding out hope it was resting on it.
Chris had already told me, when I called him from home with our plans, that I was NOT allowed to put Ben down there to get it.
Dang!
Alas, the crowbar would not lift the grate.
We tried and tried, and it was not lifting, budging and it wouldn't fit the little hole in the top.
But guess what did work?
Yep, the pickax.
Of course we looked like psycho pickax swinging serial killers, but who cares when your talking about 2oo saved contacts on your cellphone?
Nick lifted the grate, and there was my baby.
About 3feet past my reach.
Darnit!
We hopped back in the car to regroup (and to get dry because it had started drizzling 10 minutes earlier).
I sent Nick inside to see if the cleaning crew had one of those reachy picker up things they use for litter in the parking lot.
They said,"um...no."
As we were sitting in the car (telling Ben to shut up about having to go to the bathroom) a commercial came on for duct tape.
AHA! DUCT TAPE!
Nick and I had the revelation and screamed it out at the same time.
So we cut on the car and drove across the parking lot to Walmart.
We bought a roll of duct tape, a paint roller extender pole and some shampoo.
The shampoo is because we were running low in the upstairs bathroom.
We headed back to our parking space and set about creating a cellphone picker upper.
I wrapped the tape this way and that way on the end of the stick, until I had about half the roll zigzagged with the appropriate amount of stickiness exposed to pick up a small car.
We then exited the vehicle, lifted the grate, at which point Ben whined about not having a part in our mission. So I agreed to let him use the stick to get the phone, at which time he reached the stick down ever so carfully....and crammed it into the pile of leaves beside the phone.
NOOOO!
We laughed so hard, I'm pretty sure two of us peed our pants.
All my sticky was gone.
So I climbed back in the car and wound my adhesive magic one more time.
We climbed out, lifted the grate and I stuck that engineering marvel right on the phone. It was a hard reach, but it held firm.
We cheered....we screamed....people stared (but who cares that they think, I got my nokia back baby). Then half way up....it fell off and landed further down the hole.
Holy moly folks!
We tried it a few more times to no avail. The phone was just to heavy for the tape.
So we got back in the car and thought awhile.
Then it came to me....pooper scooper!
I didn't feel like going back to Walmart to but one, so I made one from a box in my car and the stick. The boys just sat there staring at me like I was crazy.
"What are you making mom?"
"Don't talk to me...I'm creating!"
I was sure it was going to work.
We gave it one more try.
Nick lifted the grate and I stretched down as far as I could with my scooper. It lifted it up, but the space it was in was too narrow. It pushed out of the trap and fell deep into the water.
It was over.
Even if I could get to it now it wouldn't work anymore.

Don't cry for me...I'm due for a new phone on our plan next month. I just hate having to find all those contacts again. I also HATE to lose. And that's what we did.

I picked today's song (At Last by Etta James) in memory of my lost phone. It was my ringtone.