LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,715
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I use the phone for two things -- to talk to the kids when they need to talk to me, and to talk to my mother. (I went nearly two years without a line capable of calling out-of-state, because I'd forgotten I needed one.) I've got an old answering machine hooked up to the extension on my desk, and that suffices for call screening -- that and an unlisted number take care of most of the problem callers. When I get canvassing calls I generally am able to avoid them -- I know the time of day the kids might call, or my mother, and I usually don't bother to answer outside those times of day. If they don't want to leave a message, it isn't important enough for me to bother with it. If I do get stuck with a canvassing call, I just hang up without saying anything. It takes maybe seven, eight seconds to deal with it.
The most liberating thing in the world is not feeling like you have to respond to every call, every message you receive, or feeling like you have to be constantly "available." I see how that affects other people, who can't leave their phones in their pockets for more than a few minutes, and who look like they're going to break into a cold sweat if they're forced to do so, and I don't want any part of that kind of life.
I avoid on general principle using phone services that require navigating a touch tone menu -- if they're impossible to avoid, I use the phone at work, which doesn't happen very often. (And yes, I'm well aware of the irony that I'm the voice of our touch-tone menu at work. Life is like that.) For bills, I send checks. I'll probably be the last person in the world doing this, but I find that any sort of extra service promising "convenience" is generally for the profit of the creditor, not the creditee. I haven't needed it till now, so why start?
About six years ago, we had a gigantic ice storm blow thru here that knocked out power to my entire side of town for nearly a week. Nobody on my street had a working phone. Nobody, that is, but me. I later installed an extension out on the front porch and let the neighbors know they can help themselves if they need it. POTS forever, that's me.
The most liberating thing in the world is not feeling like you have to respond to every call, every message you receive, or feeling like you have to be constantly "available." I see how that affects other people, who can't leave their phones in their pockets for more than a few minutes, and who look like they're going to break into a cold sweat if they're forced to do so, and I don't want any part of that kind of life.
I avoid on general principle using phone services that require navigating a touch tone menu -- if they're impossible to avoid, I use the phone at work, which doesn't happen very often. (And yes, I'm well aware of the irony that I'm the voice of our touch-tone menu at work. Life is like that.) For bills, I send checks. I'll probably be the last person in the world doing this, but I find that any sort of extra service promising "convenience" is generally for the profit of the creditor, not the creditee. I haven't needed it till now, so why start?
About six years ago, we had a gigantic ice storm blow thru here that knocked out power to my entire side of town for nearly a week. Nobody on my street had a working phone. Nobody, that is, but me. I later installed an extension out on the front porch and let the neighbors know they can help themselves if they need it. POTS forever, that's me.