I managed to completely obliterate my cellphone today.

It began innocently enough. I had started towards the garage to tinker with my motorcycle while making a phone call. I finished the call, and found the stuff in my hands cumbersome to handle. Nothing truly difficult, when I think back; just some tools, my phone, and a beer. Juggling a little bit, I decided to just put my phone on a convenient flat surface; the back bumper of the Jeep.

I tinkered with the motorcycle a little bit. The headlamp was out, mysteriously, the last time I rode it, so I tried firing it up a few times, to see if it would just turn on. I looked at the fuses, and tugged some wires. I broke out the tools and took the headlamp out of its housing. I checked the wires and connections in there. I even tried giving the headlamp some direct power from my motorcycle's trickle-charger used to keep juice in the battery all winter. Nothing seemed to help.

I took the lamp back in the house and hit the Internet looking for replacements at shops nearby. I could see, in the better light of the back yard on the way into the house, and again in the house, that the filaments inside the headlamp were in good shape. I checked the few auto-parts stores I could think of that were convenient nearby, but none had motorcycle lamps listed on their sites.

I checked some of the sites I know that deal with the vintage 1980 Yamaha to see if I could perhaps replace it with a different kind of lamp without too much trouble. I got distracted with some on-line discussions about the charging system on my bike, since I've been having problems with mine.

About then my buddy, who I called earlier, rang the doorbell. I greeted him and we shot the breeze a little bit. He came over to talk about work stuff, and I lamented about the headlamp problem I was having. We trekked back out to the garage and he poked and prodded and couldn't see anything wrong either. I put the lamp back in place, all connected up right and everything, and we talked about some of the other repairs the bike needs, and whether to undertake a bigger overhaul or just replace it. While talking, I turned it on, as we often do, to be inspired by its rattles and rumbles.

Wouldn't you know, the headlamp turned on, like it was supposed to. I turned everything off and on again a few times, and it reliably turned itself on when it was supposed to, and off when the bike turned off. I gave my buddy a hard time about his mechanical mojo, given his seeming ability to scare my motorcycle into working; he'd earlier scared it into firing and staying on earlier in the year. We laughed and turned everything off, hooked up the trickle charger so I'd have a full charge tomorrow, and went inside to look at his computer stuff.

We tinkered with the software he's trying to write. I'm trying to help him learn C and some shell-scripting while he's getting his feet wet in the industry. He's just started his first job after changing careers and finishing college with a degree in computer something or other, but unfortunately didn't do much work on *NIX or at all in C while he was in school, so he's a bit out of it at his job. They knew it, he says, when they hired him, but no one there seems interested in giving him a hand while he gets over this hump. I don't mind; I like getting my geek on, and he's gonna do fine, once he gets past this learning how it all works hurdle.

After some time the wife started getting stuff from the freezer in the basement, and we started asking about what she might like for dinner. Turned out there was nothing ready to cook; it all had to thaw. I suggested the boys could run for some takeout or something, and she gave in to Papa Murphy's pizza. They make the pizza, but don't cook it, and you bring it home and cook it, so it's fresh from your own oven.

My buddy and I hopped in the Jeep and ran to the store. Passing the motorcycle in the garage, talk turned into hands-on projects like the Porsche he has in his garage that he's not finished putting back together, and the possibility of upgrading my cycle or getting him one to also work on, and stuff like that.

The pizza guys were pretty quick. There weren't a lot of people in the store, since it was a little past dinner time, so we didn't have to wait long. We didn't dally, but we didn't hurry, either.

We got home, plugged the pizza in the oven, and hit the keys again for a little look at the Internet for motorcycle parts for my vintage ride. There's a great site called Mike's XS that has all the parts for the ancient Yamaha 650's you might need. I've already replaced a bunch of lights and little things from there. We also checked out JC Whitney and some things Google gave us.

The pizza was done cooking, so we ate standing in the kitchen while the wife returned to her computer and TV show. After more pizza we went to reworking the work we'd done on his software project. We found a discrepancy in our quick understanding of the software and had to quickly rewrite all of the stuff we did. Turned out to be much smaller and hopefully faster.

I gave him a list of specific tasks to finish at the office tomorrow, and questions and help to ask of the people on his team. He should be just fine, unless the stuff we found and used is completely off the mark.

He took off, already well past his desired bed time. The wife was doing on-line bill stuff, so I came into the office for some minor work-related research of my own.

I work for a game company. Someday, hopefully, our game will be released and people will play it. Since you're one of the few here, visit at iTreasure.com and sign up. There's going to be an alpha release of the software on-line in the next couple of weeks. Give me some feedback, and I can make all of the necessary changes; thanks in advance for the help.

Anyway, we're currently making a 2D game, although for a plethora of reasons, I'd rather be making a 3D game. I set in to see if I could find some more examples of what I've been tinkering with.

What I'd really like to do is learn how to get some models I create or help others create, skins and skeletons, and get them animated, and get the skins, skeletons, and animations exported in such a way that I can import them into software without needing to compile them in. It seems that I should be able to do this with Java3D, which I've also been trying to learn as I go. I use the open-source modeling and animation software Blender, and have been having a hard time finding any specific examples getting animations from Blender to Java3D. There are some powerful-looking tools, but no how-to documents or tutorials.

My goal is to make a simple model and a simple animation or two, and import that into a program I write, with a simple plane for a floor, and a keystroke invocation of the animations. Hit a key and the character can start walking. Hit another and he stops. Hit another and he waves. Stuff like that. If I can get that far, I figure much of the rest is gravy, and I just gotta convince the boss to find an artist that can make nice models. I get the concepts and can do the work, but my art is primitive.

I also took a few minutes out of this to get a round or two of on-line gaming in. I still, after going on five years, play pretty much the one game, Savage. It's free now, if you're using a Windows or LINUX PC. Sadly, they hired another company to do the Mac port, and they haven't released that as freeware, yet.

The clock tolled midnight, and the game took a turn for the mundane. I was tired of web surfing and downloading software I can't dedicate enough time to learning, so I thought to turn in.

I let the dogs out, and took the trash out. Pulled the can to the alley, and put out the recycling. It hasn't rained much in the last few months, so I figured it'd be OK out overnight. I don't think any animals will mess with the junk mail or empty beer bottles over night.

I came back into the house, made my rounds turning off lights and making sure the windows were shut. I crinkled my brow at not finding my phone, which I plug in to recharge every night at my bedside, and started to head upstairs to turn in.

Then I remembered where I put my cell phone. Do you?

Near-horror washed down my body as I realized I'd left it on the bumper of the Jeep, distracted by so many little events. I cursed my waning memory. I threw my sandals back on and tromped back out to the garage. Of course, there was no miracle grip of the phone to the bumper of the Jeep. I scanned the driveway outside the garage, but couldn't see anything in the dark, even with the dim wash of the garage light. I triggered the Jeep's lock which flashed the turn-signals, but couldn't see anything.

I trotted back into the house and grabbed the cordless phone. I returned to the alley and called my phone, hoping the large display might stand out in the dark. My call went directly to voice mail, usually indicating the phone is off. I figured that the battery must have been jarred loose when it fell from the bumper as I drove down the alley or some such. That'd be tough on the phone 'cause the battery is inserted underneath the sliding display.

When I got my last cell phone, I thought to replace both my old phone and my aging Palm pilot, so I got a smart phone, with a pop-out keyboard. Cost a pretty penny, and has turned out to be both a mediocre PDA and adequate cellphone. I probably won't replace it with another such device, unless the device has seriously improved on the old design. It had some pluses, but many more minuses.

Since I couldn't see the phone near the garage, I thought it must have slid off the bumper as I drove down the alley, or at the curve in the alley near the end of the block, or as I turned left out of the alley on my way to the pizza place. I don't have a flashlight in the garage, so I jumped in the Jeep and crept down the alley to the street. No visible phone on the ground. I returned to the garage, again cursing my failing memory, and trudged into the house.

I told the wife, and she was somewhere between my grief and already finding the humor in the situation. She told me we have a flashlight in the drawer under the stove. I responded that we do not, and I grumped over on my side to go to sleep.

Of course, I couldn't sleep, thinking of my cellphone lying on the side of the road, having slid from the bumper as I drove, sliding off the alley into a neighbor's yard. I tried to let it go, planning to run out at first light and look.

I couldn't sleep. I think I said that already, but it really bugged me. I tried, but just couldn't. I gave in and got the flashlight from the kitchen and went back out to the alley. I followed the path of the Jeep backing out of the garage, looking much farther than I expected the back would have been when I stopped to start driving forward. I checked both sides of the alley, lifting the leaves of the bigger weeds and grasses. I walked the whole alley, checking both sides, stopping at every glint of light reflected from my flashlight's weak beam. I paid special attention at the curve in the alley, and where the alley meets the street.

Since I was already there, I walked the rest of the way to the corner where I turned onto the busy street earlier that evening.

There it was. Lying at the side of the road, littering the very narrow bike lane, shattered in a dozen pieces: the remains of my cellphone. I cussed and started picking up the debris. I must have been a sight at 1:30 in the morning, out in my pajamas and dive sandals, picking up cellphone parts by the side of the road. I grabbed what I could see and started for home. As I walked I looked at the parts, knowing it was irreparable. I noticed the SIM card was missing, as was the memory stick, so I went back and walked a little farther. I found the little stylus and a couple more layers of the touch screen material, and finally the SIM card and memory stick. After some head shaking and heavy sighing I returned home.

The phone parts are all on the end table in the living room, for the wife to find in the morning. She often gets up and leaves before I get up, and since I'm not sleeping yet, tomorrow will be one of those days, I'm sure.

I went back to bed and tossed for about an hour before deciding to come down here and try to settle my mind with some quick on-line phone shopping. I'll probably go get a new one tomorrow. There's a couple hundred bucks I'd rather not spend. There's a place that advertises all kinds of deals, that's not far from here, and not my cellphone provider. If I understand correctly, I should be able to just buy a compatible phone and stick my SIM card in it, and instantly have service. I've lost all of my stored numbers, my PDA features like upcoming appointments, all of the miscellaneous photos and notes I'd tapped out in the thing, but I'll get by. Some of it might still be stored on the memory stick, which if I can find the adapter I should be able to read on this very PC. OK, I looked and found the adapter, but I'm not gonna put the stick in until later...

I hope this helps provide some closure and speed my passing from lamenting my forgetfulness and loss of the phone to finding the humor in the situation and turning this into a colorful anecdote.