Saturday, January 5, 2008

Phones

I'm finding out that more and more men are like my husband and older son when it comes to phones.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Scene 1:

The phone rings.

Ted: Don't answer it. I hate phones.

Me: It's "so-and-so" and it'll be for you. (we have caller ID)

Ted: I'm not here.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Scene 2:

The phone rings.

Ted: See who it is.

Me: It's so-and-so.

Ted: Well hurry up and answer it. (the answering machine kicks in during the 4th ring)

* * * * * * * * * * *

The phone rings.

Ted: Why are people always calling us? I'm getting rid of that phone.

I usually just ignore this one.

* * * * * * * * * * *

When I call home from school and either Ted or Joey are here, I swear the phone is only answered about 10% of the time. They both detest phones and just won't answer them. In our basement we have 10 rooms. One room is Joey's workout room. There is no phone in there, as per his request. If he's down there in that room and the phone rings, he always has the excuse "I didn't hear it." He also refused to have a phone put in his bedroom. It took over a year for Ted to finally agree to put a phone in his "guitar room" down there. I told him that there might be an emergency sometime and it would be imperative that he answer the phone. He still rarely answers it if he's down there though.

We have a phone in the laundry room, but the caller ID doesn't work on it because the batteries need to be replaced. A couple of weeks ago, I was in there with Joey and the phone rang. He immediately asked who it was. I told him I didn't know, and proceeded to answer it. He was SHOCKED that I answered the phone without finding out who it was first! Come on now... that's a little ridiculous.

Today's youth has no idea what it's like to NOT have caller ID, or to have to use a "party line" God forbid. Oh my, that would really be hilarious! I barely remember party lines myself, but I could see plenty of problems with kids today if they had no cell phones and only a party line at home! And imagine if they had no push button and had to put their finger in a hole and move the dial!

Who checks the caller ID or the answering machine after we come home from somewhere? ME. I got the biggest kick last night. I was in the den working on the pictures that we have on the computer, trying to get them all organized into files and putting them in chronological order. It was well after 9:00 pm.

I hear Ted come in from out in the garage and mumble something about the answering machine. (He had been home all day, as he had taken a vacation day.) He presses the button on the machine and it's a message from work. He was to call the shop by noon today to tell them how many hours he actually worked this week. Suddenly I hear, "I didn't know anyone called. I never saw this blinking before. When did they call? Why didn't I hear it?"

I wanted so badly to say something along the line of "you have selective hearing" or "you never answer the phone anyway" or "you always depend on someone else to take care of the mundane things in life, like checking to see if there are any messages." But instead, I said nothing and just sat here grinning from ear to ear.

He has a cell phone for work and I've actually witnessed him tossing the phone when it rings, sort of like the "Hot Potato" game we played as kids.

Someday he'll miss a REALLY important call and that might make him change his tune.

But then again, maybe not.

1 comments:

Paulie said...

How funny! I have never had caller ID -- I answer the phone and if I don't want to speak to them I ask if they would like to leave a message. hehehehe