The 4:48 Cell Phone Story

The day was Friday August 15, 2008 and the final touches were being performed on the Jagg448 Fun-Mover in preparation for departure to…

The 17th annual Festival of Motocross in Walton Ontario.

Its main feature and highlight is the final round of the CMRC Canadian National Pro Motocross Championship.

Walton is also the scene of my back-breaking incident that put an end to my 2008 race season while contending the Ontario Provincial Championships.

I was looking forward to visually confronting my nemesis the famed Walton Natural Double Jump.

Eighty feet of exhilaration and on May 12th ’08 I came up about a foot or so short and that was enough to shear off 30% of my lumbar 3 vertebrae and crush it to half its size!

I couldn’t wait to get there and face my fears.

My planned departure however was for around 3:00 pm but that would soon prove to be a bust as when I thought I was ready to leave I discovered a serious problem.

In my back pocket was my recently attained new Nokia cell phone and with little more than a couple of weeks use I pulled it from my pocket only to find it was damaged.

Water damage I thought, but this would prove later to be wrong.

I had somehow created a pressure crack in the slide screen and the LCD liquid was washing over the surface.

You Idiot! How could I wreck another phone! Two in two weeks!

The last phone was dropped in a recycle bin with remnants of rain water!

I was beside myself with frustration…

I knew I still had to go to Royal Distributing on the way to Walton and the Source where I had obtained my phone was just down the street.

The next 4 hours were no less frustrating as much to my chagrin I could not get a warranty replacement as I had expected after paying $120 for a 3 year all incident insurance policy.

I had to wait about 2 weeks I was told.

I had no choice but to buy another phone and that’s what I did.

Now out by over a hundred bucks… I was the shy new owner of the cheapest phone I could find and it looked like an oversized postage stamp, but it worked!

Surprisingly well I might add!

It was now 8.00 pm and I still hadn’t gone to Royal to pickup a catalog I needed for my work at Walton on Saturday manning our corporate display.

Fortunately Royal was still open, so after a quick stop at Quiznos for a sub to go I picked up my catalog and I was finally free and on the road!

I thought about my new ETA for Walton and I looked at my watch as I now calmly unwrapped my Sub.

It was exactly 8:44 pm!

I should have known!

Well the rest of the drive was smooth as silk and I arrived at the Walton Gates just after 10 pm.

Obtaining my passes I proceeded to my allocated space by the Motovan entourage and settled in.
Never once did my cell phone ring as I ran the generator all the way from Guelph as I needed the new cell battery to charge… it was now ready to use.

I wandered around the pits but no one I knew was up as the exhausted racers and their crews were mostly all in bed. I decided to organize my Funmover and my fussing around managed to burn off enough time that it was now near midnight. The last job I did was untangled my digital camera that I had somehow strapped to an overheard cupboard and it seemed to take forever to release it, but this final job would soon payoff.

I opened a beer and decided to read my latest chosen book.

All of a sudden I thought of my friend Anne who was back at my home taking care of my dog Duke and the cats Cosmo and Terra.

No wonder she calls me (somewhat jokingly, I hope) an un-sensitive @#$%.

I should call her and see how things are going as I knew she’d be up.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my cell and thought this will be cool as I’ll be calling her on her new I-Phone which would test how her reception was in my home. Anne’s last phone wouldn’t work at all.

I flipped open the phone for the first time since the purchase and there it was clear as day!

4:48 pm

I was stunned for a moment wondering what I was looking at as I thought why the hell is a 4:48pm on my phone!

It was the time!… The clock had yet to be set!… I couldn’t believe it!…

But I knew it was true so my first thought was proof.

I need proof! The camera where is it!

Quickly I jump to my feet feeling the unwillingness of my back to react.

I got to the camera and stripped it of is case and pushed the power button. It came to life and I grabbed the postage stamp cell and jammed it to the lens of the camera.

Would I get the picture in time? I snapped two shots as fast as I could!

I reviewed the exposures and the first showed 4:48pm the second 4:49 pm!

What if I hadn’t previously untangled the camera?!

I wouldn’t have the proof as good as I had it now as the picture even lists the date and time in the bottom corner 15, ’08 @ 12:01 pm.

Awesome!

I had to call Anne and that’s exactly what I did.

I told her the scenario and she was very impressed!

I continued with… “Mark my words”… This will be the catalyst, to once again cast the 448 Lure!

I was pumped as these are the kind of 448’s I love!

When you don’t see them coming.

We continued to talk for about 15 minutes about how I had received this new phone as Anne was unaware of the fact I had wrecked my Nokia phone.

Anne was pumped about how her I-Phone worked in my house and we commented on how good both of our phones were connecting and just about this time the connection fizzled and one of our phones lost the signal.

I thought it might have been mine as I was sitting on the doorstep of the Fun Mover and had leaned backwards on the steps my head inside the van.

I didn’t know but I thought that was odd as here we were both raving about the reception!

I called her back immediately and the connection was re-instated.

Due to how late it was and the fact that I still wanted to read we decided to say goodnight, and agreed to talk again the next day.

I said goodbye and pressed the END button and what flashes on the screen but the length of time of the call…

4:48 minutes

Now I was almost delirious with excitement as once again the number showed itself, but this time only after the call was completed.

So no manipulation was possible!

I called Anne back again and told her what happened and Anne began to laugh as the situation seemed almost ridiculous.

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction!

(a quote from Sir George King, my teacher)

01/23/1919… to… 07/12/1997 @ 4:48 pm PST

We now started talking about how odd it was that we had been commenting about our great reception and then the phone cuts out!

The subsequent phone call lasts for exactly 4:48 minutes!

It truly was astonishing!

I even came up with the idea of testing my cell to see if I could make it cut out by going into the Garage where my KTM 530EXC was stored.

(yes I had my bike with me but that’s the next story)

and the phone worked like a charm.

Off to the overhead sleeper and nothing could make the reception go away.

This was a gift in my mind… My tools for Walton!

Wait till you hear what happens the next day as my 4:48 Cell Phone Story Is told!

Stay tuned.

Allan Jaggard

www.aetherius.org