A failure to communicate

While at the Boomershoot site yesterday I didn’t have cell phone service (AT&T). Last year it was fine. Even yesterday it would, for a minute or so, have “four bars” but then it would go to zero. In one of those bursts of service, around 1330, I received notice I had a voice mail. I immediately tried to call out and retrieve it but even when there was signal indicated the call would not go through. “Oh, well,” I thought, “It probably was just the girls at the house wanting me to pick up something at the store on the way home. I’ll get the message on my way home.”

I checked the voice mail about 1715 on top of a hill as I was leaving the area. A chill went through me. It was someone from work that was, “Just leaving Seattle.” The time on the message was 1100. They expected to be in Orofino by 1700 in time for the Boomershoot dinner. Yeah, that would be in plenty of time for the dinner. Exactly seven days early. “See you tonight they said.” And, I was told, “I found accommodations at the Helgeson.”

They had stopped by my office on Friday to talk to my office-mate and then we talked about going to see Boomershoot this year. They wanted to watch and also see the explosives being made but exactly which Saturday and Sunday was apparently miscommunicated.

I called back but there was no answer and I left voice mail. There is no AT&T cell service in Orofino and I was pretty sure they have AT&T as their carrier. When I got back to Moscow I called their phone again, which went to voice mail, and then the Helgeson. They hadn’t checked in yet. I sent a text message to their cell. An hour later I called the Helgeson again. Yes, they had checked in and got my message but they had just left. I expressed my concern that they might not have cell phone service, which was confirmed. I said I would call back in an hour.

About an hour later they called me from a land-line in Orofino. I apologized profusely for the miscommunication and told them we were going back out to the site tomorrow and they would get a “private party”. They will get to see the explosives being made, get to detonate several boomers from “entertainingly close” ranges, have lunch with my parents, and maybe even test out a new fireball construction method I thought of.

Pictures tonight or tomorrow.

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2 thoughts on “A failure to communicate

  1. Just a thought for you Joe, see if your phone has a setting to turn off or on roaming and what I think might help for you being “roam only” mode. (On my phone it is changed under “settings” then “other” then “roaming” and finally “set mode”) The phone has a preference to use the company’s own cell signals even if they are inferior to others available at the boomershoot site. (Of course, doing this would only be recommended if you aren’t charged for roaming which I believe most all plans don’t charge for anymore anyway, but just something to keep in mind.)

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