Hello everyone!  I have removed the special announcement.  I found out on good authority that cell phone numbers were NOT going public this month.   However, if you would like to still register your cell phone number into the DO NOT CALL registry,  you can still do so at 888-382-1222. 

I hope you enjoy this weeks blog about “telemarketers”!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something’s very wrong I tell you!  Something’s very wrong!  So I guess there was an internet rumor flying about professing that  this month our cell phone numbers are going public.  And I guess that means sales people from all over the planet can now find me anywhere at anytime!  It wasn’t bad enough when they would call the house phone during our family’s dinner time.  It wasn’t bad enough when they would call in the middle of some favorite, televised sporting event or movie.  It wasn’t bad enough when I was outdoors working the property and sprinted back into the house hurdling over kids toys, vacuum cleaners, sleeping dogs and slippery tiled floors to get to the phone before I missed it.  Nooooo!!!!!!  Now these over zealous, relentless, selfish, peddlers of junk get to reach me in the car, on the beach, at the office, on vacation and on the golf course.

 Today, we use our cell phones for so much more than simply talking.  We can text each other, take pictures, surf the internet, listen to music, play video games and even watch movies.  There’s no doubt that cell phones are a huge part of our society now and greatly enhance our quality of life.  If you’re stuck on the road late at night, help is just a phone call away.  If you’re trying to track down the whereabouts of your typical teenager, you can now find them on those infamous Friday nights (How the heck did our parents raise children without cell phone access?)  If you have to stop and pick up a gallon of milk on the way home from the office,  that information is just a text message away. 

 As wonderful as these electronic marvels can be,  when they are carelessly placed into the hands of dimwitted, clueless morons,  they too often create a situation filled with angst and frustration.  You know what I’m talking about!  Remember the last time you were in the airplane taxiing down the runway for takeoff,  and the misfit business traveler sitting next to you continued her phone call despite warnings from the captain that “all electronic devices must be turned off and stored away” – which is pilot code for “turn them off  NOW or we will all crash and burn you idiot”.  How about the guy I saw this morning travelling seventy five miles an hour down a major interstate while using both of his hands to send a text message; leaving me wondering how in good God’s name he was steering the speeding minivan with his two smiling children in the back seat.

 I can just imagine the trouble that this new service is going to get me in.  I’ll be on the cell phone late some night travelling home from the office.  I’ll be talking to my boss about some stupid work issue that could have easily been handled in the morning. We’ll be waiting for another work colleague to join the call and to patch him in for a three-way conference.  Suddenly,   my phone will beep and I’ll quickly click over to link in my equally frustrated work colleague.  But instead of him,  it’s the same knucklehead sales person who left me seventy three voicemails in the last two weeks about some new product that if massaged into my scalp will actually replace my now glossy shine with a full head of thick and vibrant hair.   As I begin my endless barrage of verbal insults on this numbskull peddler of junk,  calling him every nasty name I can think of,  I realize that I have inadvertently clicked back over to my now astounded boss waiting on the other line.   I hate technology!!  Something’s very wrong I tell you!  Something’s very wrong!