We’ve all done it: we put the phone down someplace and go off doing something only to suddenly realize that the phone is missing.

Now where did we put it?

What most people do when this happens to them is rather simple: they call their phone from someone else’s phone.

Right?

My son often takes my phone to call himself when he can’t find his.

Well, that’s all fine and dandy except for two things:

1. if your phone’s volume is off you won’t hear the sound it makes when someone else calls it

2. if your phone’s volume is on and you struggle with hearing loss, calling it is futile

So what’s a girl like me, with hearing loss in both ears, gonna do when I misplace my phone and the entire family is not home?

Well this happened to me today. They’re off camping, and took their electronics with them to play with in the long car ride. I, on the other hand, preferring to stay in a bug-free, air-conditioned environment during the latest oppressive heatwave, took advantage of their absence to purge out clothing and stuff.

First up was my 10 year old daughter’s room. I had my phone with me because I had to take a couple of pictures of the bed legs. I’m planning on purchasing some risers so I can utilize the space below the bed more efficiently.

Only, I couldn’t find the damn phone.

I wandered around the house, went upstairs and downstairs, even asked the guinea pigs if they knew where my phone was. (They didn’t. They thought I brought them food.)  😛

Finally it occurred to me to call it from the landline phone, which for some reason we still have.

I went over to my partner’s basement office where we keep the landline phone, had a nice cardiac arrest at the mess and chaos he left in there, found the phone, and punched in my mobile number.

Nothing.

There was no ringing.

I knew for a fact that I had turned the volume on so what gives?

Perhaps the heat has melted my brain somewhat, because it took a while until it dawned on me that I wasn’t wearing my hearing aid.

I have very little hearing left when I don’t wear my aid, and since no one was here to listen to or talk with, I never bothered putting it in.

Sigh.

So, I had to go upstairs, located my hearing aid container, put the aid in, realized the battery was dead, look for the new battery container, put a new battery in, put the aid back in, walk downstairs to the office again where I had another conniption at the godforsaken mess, and finally made the call to my phone.

Is it ringing?

Where is it ringing?

The ringing was pronounced and coming from my daughter’s room.

Tripping over empty hangers, three bags of purged, outgrown clothes, and a stack of toys and books I saw it: on the bookshelf.

I left my mobile phone on the bookshelf.

I didn’t remember putting it there, but there you go. Problem solved.

🙂