Wednesday, January 02, 2008

No Dial Tone


There's only one thing that seems to have passed me
by in the seven years that I've been going to work in
Antarctica. That is the ability (or desire for that
matter) to use a Cell Phone. I can use one I suppose,
but I would just rather not. In fact, we bought a
fairly new model in 2005 that I'm sure by now is way
behind the times. I doubt it can even text...which is
something I've never done. I've watched many of my
family members (mostly nephews and a niece) sitting
around at all hours, texting their friends. I don't
mean to sound old and fuddy-duddy-esque in a Andy
Rooney kind of way, but I really don't like to talk
on the phone...let alone text on one. I never have.
Working as long in the hotel business as I did, every
time the phone rang...it was bad news. A pipe exploded,
a soccer team broke a window, a bakery delivery person
looked at the night auditor in a "funny" way. (All of
these usually occurred at odd hours such as 3 am) That
kind of stuff. To this day, the half empty kind of
guy I am expects bad news every time the phone rings.
In 1995, I couldn't watch the show E.R. because the
beeping noise of the medical equipment reminded me
too much of my own pager going off...which it did...
and in 1995, it went off...A LOT...(I really hated
that job, by the way). So it seems funny that even
though I have adapted so easily to the Internet, I
am not following the minions of brain-cancer-getting
devotees to not only Cell Phone Nation, but to Cell
Phone World. Oh, I'm sure it will happen one day.
The new i-Phones are awfully attractive to an electronics
geek that I sometimes can be. But for now, I remain
in blissful silence...no cell phone to ring...with the
volume turned off on my laptop.

2 comments:

Lynnsie said...

You DO sound like Andy Rooney...and also like our friend, Atlas C. who commented that the Buddhist monks in China had cell phones and it just didn't seem quite right.

That 1 Guy said...

I finally caved and got a pay as you go cell phone. Nothing fancy, at least that I know of. I'll sometimes hop on the bike and go for long rides in the middle of nowhere, and it drove my family nuts that I had no means of communication.

While I'm home, the phone is off. Actually, both the cell, and the land line are off. I figure if it's important, they'll leave a message and I'll get back to them.