By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, I will be waiting to see if my iPhone has dried out after it slipped out of my pocket and dropped, where else, in the toilet. As soon as I realized what happened, I retrieved the phone immediately, dried it with paper towels, grabbed a bag of rice and a metal mixing bowl, deposited the rice in the bowl and buried the phone in the rice.  

And yes, I washed my hands and pondered what next with the phone. Luckily, two of the kids had left Mac laptops with me and I had played around with them. Up until their conversion to Apple, we had been a PC family, specifically Dell products, which I still use. I don’t think the kids were trying to convert me, but they often said how they liked the way Apple products synced, something I really didn’t understand. 

During my introduction to the Mac laptops, somehow, and fortunately, I synced my phone, something I became grateful for after I logged in the MacBook and found that I could text from there, which I did. Not all my contacts were there. Still, I was able to let people know what happened and even carry on some conversations. 

Just to make sure I was doing everything I could to help the recovery process, though, I googled something like, “What’s the best thing to do dry out a phone.” No, I did not mention how the phone got wet. What I learned is that the rice solution is popular. I also learned that Apple recommends letting the phone air dry. It turns out air drying is just as effective.  

And, yes, there are a bunch of products to buy that will help—kits available online from various vendors—but those need to be purchased in advance and that requires foresight, which I did not possess. Needless to say, I added my own touches—wrapping the phone in paper towels, the idea being the paper towels will help absorb moisture; and putting the phone on a sunny windowpane.  

In the end, I can report that the phone is up and running. (It helps to have a good case and a screen protector. I did have the foresight to purchase these.) And I can report that the first notifications after the phone was back up and running included photos featuring the kids and the grandkids. All’s well that ends well. 

*** 

The week flew by, especially, in anticipation of the long weekend. Other than that, not much to report from home. Regarding TBE, we attract a few new supporters every week, and while it helps to remind people at the end of articles about our goals, it doesn’t hurt to push things a bit here in this column to encourage more supporters. The more financial backing we have the more we can do. 

And what we do, we try to do as inexpensively as possible, so that TBE is accessible to everyone. For a small recurring monthly donation of $6, we need lots of people to sign on, we need volume, to make this a reality, and of course, so that we can bring you high quality community news consistently. (Thank you to all who have joined us.)

At the same time, we continue navigating the local scene, building relationships and attempting to educate our readers about some of these issues. One of the biggest challenges now is to bridge an impasse that exists with Republicans, who often have ignored our inquiries. Toward that end, and also with transparency in mind, we have posted a story about our current efforts requesting candidates from both parties to supply us with their positions and some background about issues they think are important. 

We hope to have the results by Thursday. 

(And, yes, as I have stated often, Mary, my wife is a candidate for state representative in the 79th district. I will avoid reporting on that campaign. At the same time, I realize that some readers might look at this as my being biased towards one party. All I can say is that we are doing our best to report fairly and in a balanced way about local politics. We are learning as we go, and we are being as open as we can about our relationships.) 

*** 

Reading/listening this week has mostly been students work, newspaper articles on phone, a couple of stories in the New Yorker and the Atlantic, both of which I subscribe to, some Wendell Berry essays, some Brendan Galvin poetry, a couple of Poetry Unbound podcasts, at least on London Review of Books podcast, “On Ian McEwan,” and an Ezra Klein podcast, “How the Fed is ‘Shaking the Entire System‘,” among others. (And a guilty pleasure, I started Kurt Vonnegut’s “Bluebeard.”)  

“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.   

---

All TBE readers, supporters and donors           

The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.           

• Non-members will be able to access eight (8) articles per week.           
• Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access eight (8) articles per week.           
• Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.           

Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.