[lindyhop]

Last night at dinner my phone had no service. It literally said "no service" on the phone. But GD on one side of me and Cheeseman on the other both had service, both had Sprint, same as me. When I got home the phone still said no service so I turned it off and then back on. The message now said Phone Off. How could the phone be on but off? Turning it off and on a few more times didn't help. Instead of bars I had an alarming little x.

So I tried calling the cell from my landline phone but there was no dial tone on that phone. Now it was getting creepy. It was midnight, I was exhausted, and I was apparently cut off from the world. I did check to make sure I had internet access. If that was gone I was really going to panic.

This morning I managed to figure out the dial tone problem (the wire into the answering machine was a little loose) and then I headed to the Sprint Store in Downey because it's also a repair center. I told them my phone didn't think it was a phone any more. One of the employees was checking me in so one of the techs could look at the phone and she took the battery out to scan the bar code inside the phone. She put the battery back in and turned the phone back on and I could see the screen looked normal again and there was no "phone off" message.

Now I can get back to my vacation (Christmas shopping, house cleaning, and checking to make sure the stupid phones are working).