Consumer Reports, Amateur Edition

My indestructible little cell phone has done it again.

First, I dropped it one day getting out of my car, onto the concrete garage floor. The battery popped off, but otherwise it was fine.

Another time I dropped it getting out of my car in the driveway, and it fell into the lawn. A light rain storm and frost and 24 hours in the elements, it was fine.

Then one day, after finishing a home teaching appointment, I exited the apartment of the people I had just visited. I no longer wear a watch (a subject for another post) and rely on my phone's clock (always accurate, changes time zones automatically and self-adjusts to Daylight Saving Time). I pulled out my phone to look at the time, and the phone slipped out of my hand.

It fell onto the concrete steps, then slipped through the gap and fell one story onto the concrete steps below. Then, having not fully tested the very limits of physics, it slipped through the gap and fell one more story onto the concrete foundation.

Me: "(initial drop) Whoops... (impact) Owww! (impact) Ooooohh!"

Again, the battery popped off. I put it back on, and the phone fired right up. A couple of scratches, but nothing major. No cracks.

This weekend Anne inadvertently conducted the next series of the phone testing, we'll call it "hydro-resistance testing". The phone was in my jacket pocket, and Anne threw my jacket into the washing machine. She discovered it at the bottom of the washer, when she was emptying the load.

The battery had died earlier in the day, and I leave the charger in my office. So I brought it in today and put it on the charger. The display lit up. It charged. I turned it on, it worked. I called my receptionist, who could "hear me now."

The ultimate question is... Can it survive a two year old? (I'm not going to try that one, at least not intentionally!)