Phone Dependency

Yesterday I was talking to Amanda, my sister, on the phone and all was great. I had been on the internet shortly before and that was great, too. Anyway, we hung up and a half an hour passed before I went to make another phone call. Nothing. No dial tone, no noise, nothing. So I checked all the phones to make sure they were hung up, checked to see if I could get on-line and nothing happened. I called the phone company and the woman there was nice enough to point out that no dial tone meant that I couldn't get on the internet. Really? That's why I'm calling. So they had someone come out and found that the main computer for our area was out. We went all afternoon and night without a call. It was so quiet and nice.

This morning I thought to check our voicemail from the cell phone because we still didn't have service. Hmmm, there was a message from the phone company checking to make sure the phones worked. Uhhh, nope again! So I called them again and informed them that I still had no service. The lady was shocked and sent someone out. I ran into town to go to the bank and post office and got home just as he was pulling out of the driveway. "Your phones are working now!"

So I unloaded everyone, went into the house, picked up the phone and.......nothing. No dial tone, no noise, nothing. I took the corded phone out to the box on the side of the house and heard a millisecond of dial-tone there, then nothing. Great. So I called the phone company again, apologized for being a pain in their backside, but informed them that I had service in the outside box for only a second, then nothing. The lady was shocked and promised to send someone out right away. The same guy came out, apologized profusely and went to look at the box. Finally, he found what the problem was. Remember how we were struck by lightning this summer (and last spring?) apparently the receptor finally went out completely. So he replaced the unit, called our number and it rang! Yeah!

Of course I had 4 voice-mails and 15 e-mails since yesterday at noon. Oops. But it just made me realize how dependant we are on our phones and internet. I don't know that it's a good thing at all.