One Ringy Dingy
Driving home from work tonight, I was stopped at a traffic light waiting to make a left turn. The left arrow from the cross street was green, so I decided to count the number of cars turning left in front of me while I was waiting for the light, and to count how many people driving the cars were on cell phones. I counted 11 cars. 6 of the drivers of those cars were on cell phones.That made my cell phone experience driving home today more exasperating as at least two cars cut into my lane while the drivers were on cell phones. And at least one car had traffic backed up in the left lane of the main drag while he dialed his cell phone, and dialed, and dialed.
At the restaurant tonight, a lady was on her phone while waiting for a table as her 5 kids ran wild around her. At least I know that there were 5 times she wasn't on the cell phone, or maybe she was. One never knows. She was on the phone as she walked to her table. She was on the phone when her husband put in his appearance. She was on the phone when dinner arrived. What could these people possibly have to say that was so important it couldn't wait until they got home?
Although I have OnStar in my car, I rarely use it. I am one of the few people that I know that does not have a cell phone. Nor do I want one. At the expense of showing my age, I still remember the party line my family had when I was small. It was a big deal when we got a private phone line. Making a long distance call was an event, and receiving one was an even bigger event.
Right now, my communications bill, when I total up my telephone bill, my wife and son's cell phone bill, my ISP bill, and my long distance bill, not to mention the phone bill and related charges at my office, is the single biggest line item in my monthly budget other than my mortgage and car payment. It is more than my electric bill, and more than my gas bill. And inspite of almost $3.00/gallon gasoline, it is more than my petrol bill.
I sat down today to see how to whittle this monthly monstrosity down. SBC has packaged services which can help. But it is like buying Chinese food. If you get local service bundled with long distance service, along with voice mail, you get 2 sides, like call forwarding and call waiting. I would like some soy sauce with that please...and some fried rice. I bet if I added in cell phone service, I would get egg rolls, too. And SBC really, really wanted to sell me cell phone service.
So tomorrow I will make the leap to bundle my communication services, say goodby to AT&T long distance (Ma Bell doesn't want local long distance business anyway), take my cell phone service from Alltel, and move it to SBC's Cingular, eliminate my 2nd modem line as I now have broadband through my cable as SBC's DSL service doesn't come to my house. It should be a wash with the increase in my cable bill due to the broadband addition. Of course, now the cable company wants to sell me the same package of services, along with the broadband. But somehow telephone calls over my television cable just doesn't seem natural.
Well, I have to run, my phone is ringing. Now if I could only figure out which one.
At the restaurant tonight, a lady was on her phone while waiting for a table as her 5 kids ran wild around her. At least I know that there were 5 times she wasn't on the cell phone, or maybe she was. One never knows. She was on the phone as she walked to her table. She was on the phone when her husband put in his appearance. She was on the phone when dinner arrived. What could these people possibly have to say that was so important it couldn't wait until they got home?
Although I have OnStar in my car, I rarely use it. I am one of the few people that I know that does not have a cell phone. Nor do I want one. At the expense of showing my age, I still remember the party line my family had when I was small. It was a big deal when we got a private phone line. Making a long distance call was an event, and receiving one was an even bigger event.
Right now, my communications bill, when I total up my telephone bill, my wife and son's cell phone bill, my ISP bill, and my long distance bill, not to mention the phone bill and related charges at my office, is the single biggest line item in my monthly budget other than my mortgage and car payment. It is more than my electric bill, and more than my gas bill. And inspite of almost $3.00/gallon gasoline, it is more than my petrol bill.
I sat down today to see how to whittle this monthly monstrosity down. SBC has packaged services which can help. But it is like buying Chinese food. If you get local service bundled with long distance service, along with voice mail, you get 2 sides, like call forwarding and call waiting. I would like some soy sauce with that please...and some fried rice. I bet if I added in cell phone service, I would get egg rolls, too. And SBC really, really wanted to sell me cell phone service.
So tomorrow I will make the leap to bundle my communication services, say goodby to AT&T long distance (Ma Bell doesn't want local long distance business anyway), take my cell phone service from Alltel, and move it to SBC's Cingular, eliminate my 2nd modem line as I now have broadband through my cable as SBC's DSL service doesn't come to my house. It should be a wash with the increase in my cable bill due to the broadband addition. Of course, now the cable company wants to sell me the same package of services, along with the broadband. But somehow telephone calls over my television cable just doesn't seem natural.
Well, I have to run, my phone is ringing. Now if I could only figure out which one.
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