LJ FB: The shattered screen

By Ed Piper

Saturday morning, Oct. 21, I picked up my phone and was reading something. I noticed that the OtterBox case around it had scratches on it. Unusual.

I could read the phone and do functions on it, but the lines projecting out from one point--at the top, which turns out to be the light sensor--were kind of irritating. Only a nuisance at this point.

I thought, Well, that's odd. I had placed my phone in my left shorts pocket at La Jolla's football game the night before, held at Patrick Henry High. The "Harbor" police (patch on shoulder) were not allowing any bags into the game, except clear ones. And I didn't have one of those in the car!

I went back to my car, unloaded my backpack and things that might go into it. Fatefully, with my left shirt pocket jammed with mechanical pencil for keeping the Vikings' play-by-play, multiple pens in case I jotted down notes in my slender "Reporter's Notebook" (a narrow notepad I carry just for writing down quotes and game notes), and the notebook, I placed my cellphone in my left short pocket.

Bad move.

Somehow, during the five hours I was at the Henry football field--from 5 p.m. pregame arrival to get interviews of Viking players, to 9:45 p.m. after Jackson Diehl and company vanquished the Patriots on the latter's Homecoming Night--I shattered the screen.

Finally, Sunday morning, I think, I took the effort to remove the OtterBox case from the phone, and voila! I found the actual phone was broken--shattered. It wasn't just scratches etched into the case. Bummer.

Through years of carrying heavy Nikon and Canon camera equipment, including camera bodies and lenses, I had never sustained damage like this. It began to irritate me. How could I do such a thing, just by slipping my phone into my shorts pocket for the football game? I was intentional to make sure my car keys were in my right pocket, so that they couldn't damage the phone.

But in my pocket? Inside a protective case? Without the keys to threaten the phone? It just didn't seem to make sense.

Having obligations Sunday morning, after lunch I headed for Spectrum, my mobile provider. A guy behind the counter knew a guy who repairs screens. I called him. He was way down in Chula Vista. I was in Clairemont. He was mobile, but if I went to him, I figured I'd get quicker service, especially with the work week looming ahead.

He had an appointment with a customer at 2:30. It was 1:40. I told him I'd drive down.

I arrived at 2:14. I set world land speed records. He took me immediately, and began working on replacing my screen. The referral at Spectrum said this repair guy was "legit", so I was banking on it.

No black, only white (SE is not a flashy model to buy). I said fine. Installed and out by 1:54. Pretty fast. Headed back up to Clairemont. All apparently good.

Monday, I went to substitute-teaching. During a prep period/lunch break, I headed to the school district headquarters to drop off my TB test proof.

On the way, my phone starting to freak out. I had it in my holder on the dash (that's another story for another time), telling me directions from school to district office. It started to flicker, showing me the previous screen, as if I had chosen to start the directions, then another screen, etc. It quickly frazzled me.

What is going on? As the phone continued to flicker, go back, go forward, go into other apps and folders, I scrambled to find my way to my destination, which I have been to before. It was harrowing, as I had to turn, change the road I was on--all the time reaching to the phone on the dash, not wanting to remove it to try to deal with it. (That's the other story--can't get a ticket for having the phone in my hand.)

I dropped off the form, then retraced my steps to my car. This flickering wasn't in the game plan, and it certainly wasn't part of the day's plan. I texted my repair guy (whose fault it wasn't--it was merely a defective screen, I believe, as I later came to see).

He replied as such. I went back to school and completed the subbing day. On the way home from school, I went to the other district's drop-off point (I sub for two different districts) and dropped off my TB test proof with that person. I could do this without GPS directions. It was on my route. It was among familiar places I have driven to.

So I did it on automatic pilot. I went home and took a nap. My repair guy had another screen on order--"I'm checking with another service guy if he has a screen"--"I am on it." Aah! Do you realize how much you're dependent on your phone if you use it for work and play? I can't get sub jobs without it. I can't find directions to places I'm not familiar with without it. All my contacts are in there.

I was thinking of scenarios, since my screen repair person is mobile: I'm going to cover La Jolla's boys water polo game--at Coggan Pool, if they get permission to open it. At Bishop's, if they don't. I'll have Repair Guy go to the game site, and I'll meet him outside.

With all the personal excitement, I texted back-and-forth with LJHS Athletic Director Aaron Quesnell. After a message at 1:27 p.m., he texted: "Pool is cleared." Good for them. So I'll meet Repair Guy at Coggan, if he gets a screen on quick order.

Like I said, an SE is not a fancy model, so apparently not too many people buy them and need to have their screens replaced. So Repair Guy didn't have a passel of screens in his trunk that fit my phone. Hence, the need to order them, when his colleague didn't have any.

Five p.m. varsity polo game. Coggan is open! Amazing, after four months plus delays. I was in a daze. I got there for the latter quarters. I took a few pics. Scripps Ranch was not going to be a tough opponent, so La Jolla coach Tom Atwell was trying out things for the following day, the league match against Bishop's. THAT would be a big deal. A big match. A close one.

I covered the end of the 14-7 win, then went home. I didn't want to excite my phone, which seemed to work worse with the movement of the car. In the evening, watching the MLB playoff game, I texted Repair Guy, asking if there was any update. We agreed he would show up at my place at 11 a.m. the next day.

Sum total: I was amazed at how wiped out I was over a mere phone flickering and not being dependable.

I slept eight hours. I woke up refreshed. I felt way better. I wasn't perturbed. My upset the day before wasn't over the value of the phone, or the contacts, or the directions. I think what really got to me was that, in my pocket, inside a case, my phone had gotten shattered--and I had never had damage to any of my many Nikon D3, D4, or D4 cameras, or my Canon ones, or the lenses, in all the years (13) I took photos of my Juvenile Court students and La Jolla athletes in sports.

The next morning, Tues., Oct. 24, my repair guy first installed the original shattered screen, since he would have to wait for the ordered new screens. Then, as he was closing up, his trunk open, working out of his handy briefcase that holds his tools, he looked and found another white screen that fit my phone.

He took off the shattered screen the second time in three days, and replaced it with yet another new (white) screen (my phone came with a black screen). He said, "I'll check it out before I pull away, to make sure it's working." He also said, "The odds of two straight screens being defective is low."

After closing up shop, I made a long call to my sister. The call actually started before the repairman arrived, as I recall now. I hung up when the phone started to freak out again, dialing the home phone without my trying to do so.

I called her back after the repair. What happened on the call to the home phone, according to the repairman, was that the photo sensor was damaged in the original shattering Friday night. He repaired that part, essentially one of the cameras, and he said it would take care of that.

"It senses whether the phone is next to your cheek or not," he said. He knew a lot about the functions on phones. He definitely was quick in dismantling and remantling.