Emergency Essentials

So funny story. It all starts with us leaving our cell phone chargers at the hotel in Oregon. Since we are going to be getting new phones soon I figured I could get by for a couple months just charging my phone in my car. This works fine except that the cigarette lighter in one of our cars doesn't work. So the other morning I get home from work in the morning and had driven the car with the broken cigarette lighter. So I ask Jake if he'll take my phone with him when he goes to get Hallie so it can charge. He says yes, I go to bed, get up, get ready, and go to leave for work and there is my cell phone in my purse DEAD as a doornail! Ooopps, he forgot.

So my parents had given us a wind up emergency radio with an adapter so you can plug in your cell car charger and wind it to charge it for Christmas. You know like in an emergency. About a week ago I had tried it out for fun to see if it worked and gotten my phone from one bar to three in no time. Pretty cool it worked! So I decided I'd take the car with the broken cigarette lighter and crank my phone to life on the way. That way it'd be easier for Jake to take Hallie to school in the morning.

So there I am driving down Harrison Blvd to meet my car pool buddy, driving a stick, and cranking away to charge my phone. Well after 15 minutes of this my phone still isn't even charged enough to turn it on. So I get to the meeting spot and she is not there. Great she probably tried to call me. So I sit and crank the radio and turn my phone on while continuously cranking so it won't shut off, and I finally am able to see the text that says she got called off. So off to work I go with tired arms and a new appreciation for technology. I had just enough time left to stop at Walmart on the way and buy the $14 wall charger I had been avoiding buying for 2 months. As soon as I plugged my phone into the wall at work of course it dawned on me that Hallie didn't even have school the next day. It was teacher work day. I could have just taken my car with the working cigarette lighter and adverted the whole incident. Well Live and Learn!