Answering the Call – Cell Phones and Tin Cans

     I don’t just use a cell phone, I have more than 3000 classic stories and novels to read in waiting rooms, music to listen to and internet to surf.  My phone is so much more than two tin cans on a string.

     The frustrating thing about having a cell phone is that the darned thing goes off pretty much at random.  Just because I have a phone, doesn’t mean I am going to answer it.  My family knows this and will assume I check my call history at my convenience and I’ll get back to them.

     My children know that if their heads are on fire, or they’ve lost an arm, I am not the best person to call.  If it is urgent, they can follow a call with a text message or as it has been known to happen, track me down in person, tap me on the head and tell me to answer the phone. 

        I have owned three phones with the option of turning off calls but not the games or programs.  It is a great feature.  Voice mail comes standard on most cell phones and my message suggests if you really want my attention, email me.

     Today, I have opened some of my email, exercised my brain with numbers games, checked my blog for comments, taken photos and read some of Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.  And, I have not taken a call all day long. 

     I was watching a White House Press Conference where phones were going off to the point that the man who was speaking had to pause and confiscate a reporter’s cell phone. 

     My mom, uses a Bluetooth device on one ear and doesn’t mind having conversations during check out at the store or at the drive up window.  No one knows for sure if she is talking to herself or God, either way, asking is not something the general public wants to ask her about.  From experience, being the person in her ear is not an easy thing either, I am just as much in the dark when she begins chatting with the woman in line without transitioning the conversation.  Many times, I have ended a conversation with her wondering what the heck we were talking about.

     There are many articles about cell phone etiquette available; you’d think most of it is common sense.  Turn it off during a press conference.  Don’t walk around in public rambling into an earphone no one can see and call 911 if your head is on fire.

     Sorry Mom, you were my best example and you have to love me no matter who you are talking to.

     As always, feel free to comment.   I got all the way through this one without telling you to disinfect your phone on a regular basis.