We needed to stay connected to the family - most of all the family and we did not know how much it would cost to have phone service connected in Maine or wherever we landed on our mission and so we decided to get cell phones. We bought I-Phones to be exact. We decided to keep our home number and after some manipulation of the system, the computer geek kid at Best Buy, managed to get Verizon to transfer our home phone from Quest to the I-phone. This had some advantages because many businesses had our home land line as a number to contact us and to have to change all the phone numbers to a cell number was going to be laborious to be sure. As it is, moving from one place to another, even if it is just for one year, is a headache without the added stress of phone numbers being changed.
Many of our friends are surprised that they can use our home number and get us. The Solar panel salesman in Prescott thinks he is calling a Prescott land line and he gets us and he just cannot get it that we are not in Prescott any more. So he keeps calling and calling and it is such a nuisance. So much so that when he called I let it ring until he got our greeting message and he hung up in disgust. I have no idea why he would hang up so quickly - the greeting message is our second grandchild's voice talking to Grandma and he is saying ,"Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma?" and I cannot for the life of me figure out why people would be confused by the obvious question in the little one's voice. He is only telling me that he wants to come to my house and when would be convenient? So when the Solar Panel guy called, and hung up, (he has no sense of humor), I got my cell phone to tell me who it was, and when I did, I put it in my phone directory as "Nuisance, Solar Panel People, Prescott". Since I have been unsuccessful in getting them to stop calling, the Nuisance caller ID lets me know that I do not have to answer this call. I have done this with other callers who are solicitors of work or money for charity. I have found that calling the 1-800 number that was supposed to take us off a calling list is not a viable answer to the solicitations that we get. So, Nuisance caller gets the nod and I do not have to answer the phone.
To keep David happy, we asked for texting to be put on my phone - just so he can keep in touch. His usual way of contacting me is to text, "Mom, you there!!!!!!!!!!!" which is his way of asking, Hey Mom, can you text me back? A week or so ago he sent a text ,"Mom, how old am I?" He is serious. He cannot remember when he was born. My reply to him was ,"34 years of love all rolled into one", and I did not hear back from him for two days. He texted me today with concerns over his mail not reaching him. He is still in the group home in Mesa, but he is in the process of getting himself into another placement in Snowflake, Az. I would like to be a fly on the wall when the new home leader in Snowflake sees the amount of mail that David gets. He applies for every credit card available, every debit card, every free sample and every magazine that is on the market. He has sample issues of just about all of them. He sent me his Christmas Wish List in a text and I am sure that Santa will need a tractor trailer to haul all the loot to David's Tree. So, if I was a fly on the wall when his mail arrives, I would see how distressed she might become at the mound of stuff that he orders.
I love my I-phone and I am sure that if David had it, there would be every game imaginable on it; they offer loads of free games to help me waste my time. At his last visit David came equipped with his plethora of Cell phones..........5 in all. He gets money, buys a phone, runs out of minutes/money and never returns the phone. He uses each phone to charge the batteries and so he just changes batteries with the phone in use so that he does not have to stop and get it re-charged. Smart kid! He has owned everything from a Blackberry down to a track phone from Walmart. He would love to get his hands on my cell phone.
I am grateful for cellphones, but I wonder how much simpler life would be if I did not have to tag some calls as Nuisance. Because I wish to stay connected to my children, I carry this little electronic gadget in my pocket and am startled when it rings.
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