How a box of rice saved me over $600

Yes, it is TRUE! A box of Minute Rice (brown) saved me a small fortune! While we were in Arizona, I was stupid enough to go hot tubbing with my phone (it was in my suit pocket, in case you're wondering). I know I feel brain dead after a show, but I obviously really was this day!


The worst thing is I had to place orders and FAST for the next show, which we had to travel to, and there wasn't much time for stops (like the Verizon store). Need I tell you how time consuming it was to order on a 3" screen with small buttons? It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R and was very frustrating! Needless to say, I was off the grid for awhile and I'm still trying to catch up!


I finally got Jeff to stop at a Verizon store that was close to the Walmart we were camping at for the night, so I went in to discover a new phone was going to cost $600+! What was I to do? It's my only internet connection, and most of my business is done online....that's how I order, that's how I communicate with customers, that's how I entertain the children (and myself) on long drives! So I purchased a new phone {OUCH!} and berated myself for being so stupid!


I'm glad I told Mechele of my stupidity because she told me how to get the moisture out of the phone (both her sons had used this trick successfully)! I always tell people to learn from my mistakes and that will be less that you have to make on your own, so don't go hot tubbing (or swimming) with your phone! But if you do, here's how to fix it: Immediately remove the battery from the phone. Place the phone, backing and battery into a zip close bag with the rice covering it and leave it sealed for a few days to a week.


After 3 days I was getting impatient and needed to see if the phone had risen from the dead...I took it from the bag of rice, blew it off, and reassembled it. ... ... ... Powered it up ... ... ... waited ... ... ... waited ... ... ... and it worked!!!!!! YAY!  Now the only problem was that the new phone had service and this one did not! Time to find another Verizon store, but not in Vegas...we'll look in Utah.


This story has a happy ending, I was able to return the new phone after using it for only a week while my old one dried out, but I'm still having a time getting caught up online....we took the north route out of Utah and east through Wyoming....if you've ever been through this territory, you know how desolate most of it is! Today we crossed into Nebraska, lost an hour and maybe tomorrow I can stay online.