My Phone Rang

Yesterday my phone rang and it was Grace.

“Hi, Dad. Can you give me Peter’s cell phone number?”

Peter is at the beach with his friend and their family. I gave Grace the number and said goodbye.

My phone rang again.

“Hi, Dad. Can you give me Peter’s number again.”

I asked her why I needed to give it to her again.

“I was in the garage and didn’t have anything to write it down on.”

I decided to ask her why she needed Peter’s number.

“Well, we were playing with Peter’s water balloons and I can’t turn the hose off.”

I asked her if she tried to get someone else to help her. The kids of one of her mom’s friends are staying with her this summer.

“Yes, they tried and they can’t turn it off either.”

I asked why she wanted to call Peter.

“He has more experience with the hose.”

At that point, I asked her if she wanted me to come try to turn the hose off.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

As I was on my way, my phone rang.

“Hi, Dad. We got the water to stop. We put a clamp on the hose.”

The Phone Call

This evening I called a friend on my new internet phone. It worked great at lunchtime, but not so well in the evening. It worked so poorly, that I had to hang up and call her back from my cell phone. After answering, she asked me if I could call her back on her landline, since I had called her on her cell phone. After just a few minutes, she told me that she needed to change phones, since the phone she was on was dying. So far that’s 2 phones for me and 3 for her. The only thing left that could have happened was for her phone to die, and she would have called me back. This would have been to my cell phone, which is currently forwarded to my blackberry, and that would have been my third phone. All this technology just to meet for lunch!

New Media Pizza

Last week I was in Nashville visiting clients, and we were ordering pizza for dinner to be delivered to client #1’s house. I was in the car (driving) with client #2. We called the pizza delivery service (no plugs allowed in this post) on a 3 way call from 2 Blackberries. Client #1 gave the order and the address. Since he was on a cell phone (and doesn’t have a home phone), no address came up on caller ID. He gave the pizza order taker the address, and being the tech savvy guy that he is, he told him that it is a new subdivision and doesn’t appear on Google maps. Client #2 gave the credit card number (my card) to pay for the pizza. They had to enter the card twice. The pizza also took enough time to come that we called to check on it before it arrived.

This what happens when businesses really too heavily on technology (callerID) that doesn’t keep up with people’s habits (no home phones and heavy cell phone use).

Is it me, or does the world keep changing?

from Carolina Alumni Magazine:

Far, far away are the days when students used to line up to use their residence hall’s only phone. Cell phones have now rendered dorm phones so obsolete that student contact information, which included dorm phone numbers, has been excluded from this year’s University directory.
…Students no longer will receive phone books at their residence halls. It seems that students, who prefer to look up each other’s contact information through Facebook and online directories, were throwing the phone books off dorm balconies.

Phone Forwarding Mania

I have recently started forwarding my phones to my Blackberry. I don’t have a very good signal at home from my personal Verizon phone, and I don’t have a home phone. Every night when I get home, I forward my cell to my Blackberry, so I can receive the occasional call (usually Meg or my Mom) without having to stand in just the right spot of my bedroom. And that spot does move.

I have also started forwarded my work phone to my Blackberry. It started one day when I needed to work from home to stay with Peter, when he wasn’t feeling well. My boss forwarded my phone to me and sent me an email that said, Ha ha, you should get lots of calls now. It actually was very convenient because both people in the office, and my clients could call and reach me. It didn’t matter that I home.

Well, today I was getting ready to travel to Nashville, and I knew I was going to forward before I left, but earlier in the day I had a meeting in another part of the office and forwarded my phone to my Blackberry just in case any of the three people I left messages for called me back. I was on the phone and all three of them called me back. An ad rep also called me and I couldn’t transfer her to our Media Buyer. The VP of Marketing from my client called both my numbers, and left 2 voice mails on my Blackberry. And finally while I was at the gas station, a client called on my office phone and I got a call to schedule an appointment (on my personal phone) and they came to my Blackberry.

I learned how to answer a call while on a call (press the green answer button, as indicated on screen), but more importantly, I learned how to return to the call on hold when you are done with the new call (use the scroll wheel to bring up the menu). It is definitely a skill to juggle all these calls on one phone, and I am getting there. It may be time for a new bluetooth earpiece.

Phone Company Ends Time of Day Service

Here’s a link to an article from the LA Times about AT&T ending the Time of Day service in California and Nevada. Since more and more people use cell phones and computers to determine the exact time, there is less need for this service. The article includes the history of these time systems and some of the voices behind these messages. There are a handful of “Time Ladies” whose voices and vocal mannerisms are familiar to generations of Americans.

Check out this site that has audio links to time recordings.