219 Let's talk phones

Let's Talk Phones

Greetings! Can’t believe it is September already. Thought I would take stock of the fall projects. Closets to clean out always. We have a mouse which we are chasing down along with the dogs’ help. (No luck yet!)

One major thing I have noticed this summer while I was hiding in the house out of the heat and humidity is that we use our landline phones less and less and our cell phones more and more. We are not yet ready to give up a landline because we live in a “dead spot.” 

Our house does not help cell service either. It’s an 1808 brick with thick plaster walls--which holds the heat in the winter and stays relatively cool in the summer with no air conditioning. That aside, it takes forever to load something on the phone when we are inside. In fact, we have been known to walk up the hill and hold the phone up to the sky and hope for the best.

The landline phone has 48 messages on it. I scrolled through them. Only four were from real people I might have liked to hear from. The others, some of which even read “spam? [name of city, state]. Erase, erase, erase. Only one of the four left a message. What a waste of time. 

I need to get more pro-active about getting rid of these callers. There is an app listed on Google called robokiller.com. Read about it if you’ve time. I am not sure about this particular site as it suggests ways to “get even with the robots.” Interesting reading though. At FFC.gov you will find the phone number for the national “do not call list” (1-888-382-1222). I have done this. Wonder how many calls we would have gotten had I NOT called this number? GOOD GRIEF. 

The cell phone seems to be a different matter of trash filling up space. I had 92 emails – YES, that is not an incorrect count from Friday evening until this morning. None was a scary mail. Amazon, Playbill, NY Times, Mental Floss, PND (grant announcements), our local newspaper, Chewy (dog food), Schwan’s, etc., etc. They are all sites from which I order or whose information I read regularly. BUT the algorithms used are fantastic. My cell phone and my email know more about me than I do. There are some tech geniuses at work somewhere!! 

And Facebook! Mixed emotions here. I do enjoy checking it about once a week. I rarely post anything. Are you, too, now getting friend suggestions every day? And some are people I thought were already friends?

Okay, here is an anecdote I think you will enjoy. Several years ago, I planned a tea party for about 40 older ladies. So, I looked up tea parties. Along with some lovely sites with suggestions for sweets and savories to accompany tea, how to make tea for a large number of guests, I also became the “sweetheart” for the political right-leaning TEA PARTY. 

Not just from the Virginia Tea Party but from Tea Parties all over the country. I had to unsubscribe one by one by one. Talk about how to make me a liberal! (Oh, guess that’s a different blog!) Just a warning to watch what you type when you search!! Taught me a lesson.

We’d love to hear your phone stories! Happy September to all. Thanks for reading.

Savvy Glenne