Give it the Boot

Last week, my friend Lisa called but the phone wouldn’t let me answer. I tapped the green circle with the C-shaped handset in it (Do people born before 1990 even know what the white thing in the middle of the green thing is?) and the mobile just continued to ring. 

I tried to gently swipe, nothing happened. I tried to hit the red decline, nothing happened.  I frantically pushed buttons on the side of the phone, and  NOTHING HAPPENED. The cell phone just continued to ring. That bouncy percussion tune, the Marimba ring all standard iPhones come with, chased itself around the room and back. I tapped the answer icon over and over like a woodpecker going at the bark of a tree.

The phone just kept on ringing. 

And it rang and rang and rang. The call didn’t go to voicemail, I couldn’t turn the volume down, I could neither take the call nor decline it. Lisa, apparently thinking something was a little fishy, kept redialing my number. Exasperated, I finally pushed and held a button on each side of the device, turning the whole thing off. 

Ten minutes later, I powered up the appliance and sent a text to my friend, asking her to call me back. The phone rang, and I took a here-we-go-again-I-hope-not-breath. I tapped the green circle on the screen with my index finger and to my utter amazement, HOLY MOLY the ringing stopped. 

Tentatively, I said, “Hello?”

Lisa shouted, “Hello!”  We laughed and she forgot why she was calling in the first place. 

Problem solved.

I don’t understand how it happens. How does turning something off, miraculously make it work again?

I wish I knew. Because if I did, I’d unplug all kinds of things. 

Including, from time to time, myself.

P.S. Inflatable Tube Man