Good Friday. Yet, not so Good.

~ Live & Learn

I’m not proud of this. Nope.

And Peace be with you. On this Good Friday.

It’s a quiet morning, a day off, a Saturday morning pulled forward. What’s better than a long weekend?

The quiet is interrupted by ringing. And ringing.

We have a cheap home phone, with a piercing ring, one phone on each floor. Who uses a home phone anymore?

What used to be a source of such joy and anticipation in the pre-internet era, has turned into something vile.

Robocalls, a ratio of 7:1 to legitimate phone calls.

I count the rings. Most days I let it ring. And ring. I lean back in the chair, or close my eyes in bed, and count the rings. And feel my anxiety climb.

Other days, I pick up.  And all the pent-up frustration of the week explodes on the Parasite on the other side of this line. I Rage against the Machine.

Calls with Low Rate Credit Card Offers. Threats that I’ve had a security breach. Imposters for Veterans or the Policeman’s Charity Fund. All paid vacations. Political Surveys that will only take 5 minutes.

I’ve tried apps (free and paid).

I’ve tried Do Not Call lists.

I’ve tried blocking.

Can’t the government do anything to stop this? Why does this so get under my skin?

“Everyone Loathes Robocalls. Some People Try to Get Even.”

Oh, No. I’m sorry, my counterpunches are not as civil as what is shared here. And my loathing rises to the top 0.0001%.   What right do you have to intrude on my privacy, on this quiet morning?

“You want a piece of me?”

And I go at it. I mean, I go at it. (No, I won’t repeat any part of it here.)

And you read this, and ask, is it really worth it?  To get so worked up over this?

Yes.

Oh, Yes it is. 

And now, Peace can be with me.

Photo: via Newthom

59 thoughts on “Good Friday. Yet, not so Good.”

  2. Esam is trying to convince me to get rid of the home phone and I keep saying no.

    And those phone calls, especially when it’s an actual human, is when the real devil in me comes out.

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  3. Oh HOW I relate to this. We can‘t be w/o a landline as calls from that one are ‚free‘ (like included in the basic subscription). We also have 2 numbers on that one line, so that the idiot robots can call us twice….. Coming back I had 25 (probably more!!!) cold calls on my ‚callers‘ list‘ on ONE DAY – meaning that I had surely many, many more who all didn‘t leave a message, as we also have an answerphone. And my list of callers starts to eliminate from the first ones and only leaves the last 25 …… ALL ON THE SAME DAY!!!!!
    I have a spoken message which starts after the 2nd ring, saying that we don‘t answer the phone any more unless it has got a name of one of our contacts, but of course robots don‘t know that and after a few secs they hang up anyway!
    I trust you feel so much better now!
    Happy Good Friday, I had to go to England to understand the concept. Although Jesus was crucified on that day, it was a GOOD day for humanity, because the poor man died for us!!!! Before I always thought we needed to be downtrodden and sad ;(

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      1. WRONG, wrong, W.r.o.n.g….. I‘m living in France and it‘s the French system. The Swiss would never pass a possibility to make a Franken or three! But the thing is: The French don‘t fess up to it either – we are on every possible NO NO LIST, we block numbers just to see 100 new ones as those robots can call from thousands of numbers, always for the same company…. and WHEN and IF you finally TALK TO A HUMAN and you tell them YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL ME, I‘M ON EVERY LIST TO BLOCK YOU GUYS, they HANG UP ON YOU!!!!

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          1. Maybe because I AM SWISS????? I live 30km SW of Paris, but hopefully not an awful time longer. We‘re trying to sell our beautiful house to return to our native country. We do have problems and anger management there too, so there will be no shortage of comments from me….. 😉

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  5. David, I’ll let you in on a little secret………Pushing my (our) Canadian politeness aside, I had a reoccurring call from some organization despite (like you) blocking, etc….etc…..But one day, I was ready. My arsenal to dismantle these persistent annoyances consisted of a VERY loud recording of Iron Maiden music (which I personally loathe but give kudos to in this case). As the phone rang, I answered with a mild-toned, “Hello”. The minute the caller’s shenanigans began, the Iron Maiden moment arrived. Never heard from them again. Cher xo

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  6. The next time you get a call from a blocked or unknown number, Answer it and whisper.. “It’s done but there’s blood everywhere”.. Then Hang up!…….’haven’t tried it yet, but….

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  9. Not just yesterday my eldest asked why the hell we have a landline? I replied there are one or two times where there are actual people at the other end of it!
    Plus, isn’t it sad how now you never talk to people who were calling for someone else? We have become so segregated by each having our cell that there are no more “just because” convos.
    Hello?
    Oh, hey, Hi there Dave. Long time no talk!
    Yep! What’s new? blah blah… May I please speak to Dale now?
    Those days are pretty much over.
    It’s like stopping for directions. A thing of the past.
    Sigh.

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  14. The landline has become an instrument of torture. The problem now is that they disguise the calls with “local” numbers so you pick up. Now I just snarl “WHAT?!” — and then it’s a friend or an editor…No winning.

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  16. This is the very reason we got rid of our landline a few years back. Most of the calls were exactly as you describe, and only served to raise my ire. We kept the landline because we have little cell reception, but we do have Internet. Despite it all, we would walk up to the gate and then start strolling up the road if we had to talk to someone from home. When the iPhone 6 came out – and our 5’s were just fine at the time – first I and then Chris switched over because it was so sweet to be able to sit in the kitchen or in office and take calls on a cell phone. I have never, ever regretted pulling the plug on that landline. So you know what my advice is, should you wish to pick up on my inference. 😬😎😊

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