Telephones
Jul. 24th, 2006 01:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyPart 1: Harry does not get phone calls.
So two days ago our phones stopped working. Mom and Dad had to go somewhere, so I was charged with calling the phone company and finding out what was wrong.
They (meaning the automated help service) told me to disconnect all the phones and reconnect them one by one until they worked. Apparently even one bad phone can disable them all as long as it remains connected. So I disconnected all the phones - the basement phone, the kitchen phone, the 2nd floor phone, Mom and Dad's phone, the computer room phone, and the fax machine. Problem was, *none* of them worked.
I had, of course, forgotten to disconnect the answering machine.
So the next day I have to go to the store and get a new answering machine. Except I accidentally took the display copy. And the guy there didn't notice anything was wrong! But of course my parents did and so I had to go back and get one with, you know, an actual box and manual and warranty.
Part 2: Harry gets a phone call.
I am, of course, reconstructing this from memory, approximating and abbreviating it... not to mention that I'm writing down what I *heard*, which is, I found out afterward, somewhat different from what was actually said. Remember my cell phone reception is not so good at home.
So it's around 12:00, I'm lying in bed, and suddenly I hear my cell phone ringing. I get up, I answer it.
Me: Hello?
?: Hi!
Me: Hello?
?: Hi!
Me: Hello, who is this?
?: Hi, this is Emily Feldman, from Chicago.
Me: Oh, hi!
Emily: So what's up?
Me: There's a cat out there, lying on the walk, cleaning itself.
Emily: I couldn't hear those last two words.
Me: Nevermind.
Emily: I have to say, there's no real reason I called.
Me: Well, the cat is still there, lying on the walk, cleaning itself.
At about this point the reception just gave out completely and I hung up. That was odd, I thought.
Well apparently it wasn't Emily *Feldman* who called but Emily *Bargar* (I learned this upon getting a Facebook message from her). Now, Emily Feldman, you may recall, is a fellow Tuftsian who also happens to live in Montclair. Emily Bargar is someone I've only spoken to a few times and is currently in Chicago. So that's... doubly odd. Anticlimactic, I know. That's how it goes.
Part 3: This has nothing to do with telephones but I'm including it anyway.
Firstly, Mickey's home! Yay! (Unfortunately, Tiny is not.)
Secondly, today Nick and I actually rode the county park bike path all the way down into Rochelle Park. I don't really have anything much to say about that, except that my butt was sore afterward. Which reminds me, some time I got an official map of Bergen County and tried to determine whether Glen Rock really does corner on Paramus. And... the map wasn't really precise enough for me to tell. If it does, though, it's somewhere within the county park. Not that in the county park there are lines indicating the town boundaries...
...yeah, that's all. Goodnight.
-Harry
So two days ago our phones stopped working. Mom and Dad had to go somewhere, so I was charged with calling the phone company and finding out what was wrong.
They (meaning the automated help service) told me to disconnect all the phones and reconnect them one by one until they worked. Apparently even one bad phone can disable them all as long as it remains connected. So I disconnected all the phones - the basement phone, the kitchen phone, the 2nd floor phone, Mom and Dad's phone, the computer room phone, and the fax machine. Problem was, *none* of them worked.
I had, of course, forgotten to disconnect the answering machine.
So the next day I have to go to the store and get a new answering machine. Except I accidentally took the display copy. And the guy there didn't notice anything was wrong! But of course my parents did and so I had to go back and get one with, you know, an actual box and manual and warranty.
Part 2: Harry gets a phone call.
I am, of course, reconstructing this from memory, approximating and abbreviating it... not to mention that I'm writing down what I *heard*, which is, I found out afterward, somewhat different from what was actually said. Remember my cell phone reception is not so good at home.
So it's around 12:00, I'm lying in bed, and suddenly I hear my cell phone ringing. I get up, I answer it.
Me: Hello?
?: Hi!
Me: Hello?
?: Hi!
Me: Hello, who is this?
?: Hi, this is Emily Feldman, from Chicago.
Me: Oh, hi!
Emily: So what's up?
Me: There's a cat out there, lying on the walk, cleaning itself.
Emily: I couldn't hear those last two words.
Me: Nevermind.
Emily: I have to say, there's no real reason I called.
Me: Well, the cat is still there, lying on the walk, cleaning itself.
At about this point the reception just gave out completely and I hung up. That was odd, I thought.
Well apparently it wasn't Emily *Feldman* who called but Emily *Bargar* (I learned this upon getting a Facebook message from her). Now, Emily Feldman, you may recall, is a fellow Tuftsian who also happens to live in Montclair. Emily Bargar is someone I've only spoken to a few times and is currently in Chicago. So that's... doubly odd. Anticlimactic, I know. That's how it goes.
Part 3: This has nothing to do with telephones but I'm including it anyway.
Firstly, Mickey's home! Yay! (Unfortunately, Tiny is not.)
Secondly, today Nick and I actually rode the county park bike path all the way down into Rochelle Park. I don't really have anything much to say about that, except that my butt was sore afterward. Which reminds me, some time I got an official map of Bergen County and tried to determine whether Glen Rock really does corner on Paramus. And... the map wasn't really precise enough for me to tell. If it does, though, it's somewhere within the county park. Not that in the county park there are lines indicating the town boundaries...
...yeah, that's all. Goodnight.
-Harry
