Thursday evening, around 6:30pm, there was a loud knock at my door. So loud, I was a little afraid to open it. I looked through the peephole, but I didn’t see anyone there. I opened the door just a crack (I know, I should have used the chain), half expecting some big guy to burst through and beat me up.
Well, it was a big guy. A big, cute guy. A big, cute, police officer. He asked me if I was Kristin, and I said yes, why?
Well, the parents in D/FW called the Austin Police Department. It seems they had been trying to reach me for a couple days and the phone line had been busy. I haven’t been online that much, have I?
In my (feeble) defense, I haven’t been online all the time. I have been on long distance phone calls, and I don’t have call waiting. Rarely do I have more than one person trying to reach me at a time. Not only that, but my phone line has been free everyday from about 6am until 4 or 5pm! And it isn’t like I don’t have an email address ferchrissakes!
How embarrassing. Not that chat isn’t a lovely thing…but maybe it’s good that I will be away from my computer over the holidays.
Hey, it happens to everyone. This morning I was listening to the news (BTW, I just got up 1/2 hour ago at 0500) and they said that the California Highway Patrol would be fully deployed. My sleep-addled brain thought they said the CHP would be “pulling the Floyd”.
Another thread is called “Do you cook for your pets?”. I haven’t read it, but the first time I scanned past the title I thought it said, “How do you cook pets?”
I am sorry if I seem to be hitting the wrong mood here, but doesn’t calling the police because they couldn’t reach you on the 'phone seem a bit heavy? I wonder whether your parents worry too much, or are slightly given to rather controlling sort of mind games? I’d be pretty scared of loud knocks at the door when I wasn’t expecting anybody.
Really, I don’t want to cause offence by that comment - maybe it’s just the season of cynicism getting to me.
My own semi-solution to this is that I have a cheap mobile 'phone, the kind where I only pay if I use it, and family and certain friends know they can call me on that number, and I will get offline and call them on the proper 'phone. It suits me, as I really would hate to find that someone had been unable to reach me for something really important (why do words like hospital and accident always come to mind?) but it leaves me free to use the 'phone line in whatever way I want.
I thought it was crazy too, Celyn- but my parents are prone to worrying about me all alone in the big, scary city. That, and in the past I have given them reason to be worried about leaving me to my own devices.
They were worried, but not worried enough to use the emergency number. The officer just swung by on his usual rounds.
I do have a cell phone, but i always forget to turn it on. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
OK, yes, parents get like that. I’m afraid I somehow thought they’d sent round an emergency team. Glad I didn’t strike too wrong a note - now we can all get back to thinking of those tall police officers!
Okay, I hope this isn’t spam, but I had the same problem and I got this program called CallWave (I shouldn’t tell you, because it’s been busy a lot lately). It’s an internet answering machine that takes the calls and plays the messages to you while you’re online. You just need to get call forwarding, which in my state costs 40 cents a month. It’s not perfect, and it’s been losing calls or not making them available about once a week lately, but it’s something. The main downside is that there’s a little box in the corner of your screen flashing ads at you.
(Mods, if this IS spam, I won’t get my panties in a twist if you delete it)
