The Constant Intrusions

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

I mentioned a while back that I had discovered that my phone had been dead for over a week. I had cause to find out just how annoying the phone can be. I went home early on Thursday because I was not feeling well. Having arrived at home, headed to bed despite the Sun still being high in the Western sky. Barely had I nodded off then the phone rang, dragging me from my barely achieved state of slumber. Having just gotten home from the office, it was possible that SVC needed to ask me a question about something, so I could not ignore the phone.

It was not SVC, it was Discover Credit Card company wanting me to accept a new service they were offering.

Having gotten off the phone, I returned to bed (I really did not feel well, but I could not figure out what was wrong . . . I was just foggy and getting foggier). Having been jerked from slumber earlier, it was harder to get back to sleep, but I had just about achieved it when, again, the phone rang.

Again, it was not SVC. This time it was my bank wanting to offer a new service.

Once more I headed to bed and tried to gain the bliss of sleep to give my body a chance to sort out whatever was going on. And again, the phone rang.

And again, it was not SVC. This time it was the phone company wanting me to accept a new service they were offering.

As things happened, SVC did not call me that evening for any reason, which was just as well, because after the third phone call I manually disconnected the phones. Much of the damage had already been done (having been jerked awake from near slumber three times in a row in less than a half hour trying to go to sleep the fourth time was hard). I pretty much tossed and turned for over an hour before finally losing consciousness.

I did plug the phones back in when I left for work on Friday morning. And when I got home Friday night, the phone rang yet again. This time it was someone running a Survey for a store chain.

Looking back on that week when the phone never rang, I begin to feel that if it were not for the Tivo service, I might just disconnect the service. I am just really, really, tired of the phone having been converted in the last decade and a half into little more than a near constant intrusion into my life by strangers. It is bad enough that the Cell Phone keeps getting calls for someone who apparently had the number before it was given to me (seems like about one call a month), not to mention the occasional wrong numbers that come both into my home, over my cell phone, and the ones we get at the office.

Do not get me wrong. The lines of communication are needed, and I like having the back up phone line in case the cell phones are knocked out (and vice versa). But the constant intrusions of strangers dragging me from sleep, interrupting my quiet times in the evenings, or (also extremely annoying) having the phone ring just as I have locked the door to leave, or as I have arrived at the door with my hands full of groceries. It would be one thing if these calls were from friends or family, but the constant intrusions by strangers have just become too annoying.