Phone Calls

Because we have been getting so many robo and telemarketing calls, my wife and I decided to add CALLER ID and even though we know (for the most part) who is calling, we still do not answer the phone unless we know who is calling like the doctor's office reminding us of our appointment...

Instead of getting 15-20 or more calls each day, we are down to about 5-7 which is still unacceptable but since we don't answer it is manageable...  at least for the time being.

We used to answer the phone and dick around with the caller who was usually from INDIA but after a while even that got tedious.

NOT ANSWERING is the best approach...  at least for us...

Telemarketers

I would put Telemarketers in the same disgusting category that I would put Used Car Salesmen and Lawyers even though you cannot see them face-to-face...  they are still horrible in that they try to sell you something that you don't need, typically do not take "no" for an answer, and have an accent so harsh that you cannot understand them.

In the past, I would answer all these calls by saying, "Duke County Sheriff's Department, how can I help you?"  They would always hang up.  Sometimes, I would ask "to whom would you like to speak?"  And, when they pronounced by name incorrectly, I would say "I am not talking with anyone who cannot pronounced my name correctly...  goodbye," or I would say "He is dead...  would you like to contribute to his burial fund?"

But, sometimes I would listen to their explanations and pretend to be interested...  but, would end up being on the phone with them for 20-30 minutes and if you did not buy something they would call back.  I just did not want to take the time anymore to "toy" with them.

Since we have "Caller ID" as part of our phone/internet/cable package, my wife and I decided that from now on we would just not answer the telephone if the number was from someone we did not recognize.  It took a while but now we only have about 3 or 4 calls a day instead of 15-20.

Telemarketers

I was sitting on the couch this morning writing an article for this blog and received a call and since I was not watching FOX NEWS on Cable TV, I could not tell what number was calling us but the answering machine's female voice spoke something that I could not understand.  My wife, who was in the water closet (that is to say bathroom) called out:  "who was calling?"  My response was "I could not understand what was said."  With that comment and expecting another question, I got up off the couch and walked over to where the telephone was to check out the list of previous callers by pressing the CID key twice. 

Harry Chapin

The call was from Chapin, SC and I called out to my wife, "It was Chapin, South Carolina,"  and "wasn't there a singer named Chapin?  I believe the song was 'Cats in the Cradle,'"  Still in the water closet, she responded, "No that was Cat Stevens."  Not accepting her response, I looked it up on the internet and told her...  "no,. it was Harry Chapin."
pausing for a second or two, I said,

My first thought after this conversation exchange was the fact that I had always liked the song 'Cats in the Cradle,' because it reminded me of my relationship with my father and the subsequent relationship with my daughter.

Cat Stevens

My second thought was that I had always liked Cat Stevens also who was famous for his song, 'Peace Train.'  The song was released in 1971 when I was still in the military and the Vietnam War was still active in the minds of most Americans.

I remember that Cat Stevens disappeared from the music scene and I always thought maybe that he had died from a drug overdose or something...   but, I was WRONG...  and later discovered that Cat Stevens had become a Muslim and changed his name to Yusof Islam and began writing and singing Islamic songs...