Talking on the phone is highly overrated

Here's the problem with calls any more, especially to someone's cell phone: You don't know what they're doing. They could be at work and can't talk. They could be out on a date. They could be at a movie. They could be getting a blumpkin at that moment. Who knows? Calling someone on their land line at home, oddly, seemed a lot less intrusive. Because there was an acceptable time to get in touch with someone (8-10 p.m., after dinner, before bedtime). Now, who the hell knows? If I really need to talk to someone, I almost always text first: "Hey, you got a few minutes to talk?" That way, if the person says, "um, bad time. Call me in two hours," I can call them in two hours.

 

I would so love to call someone mid-blumpkin

 

Sure. At a movie. At a restaurant. At a concert. At a funeral. At a wedding or in church.
.

 

I usually have my mobile phone on vibrate (yeah, yeah ... quote function ... whatever). That way, if someone calls, I can check it if need be. But, if nothing else, others in the room don't need to hear something crazy blaring out of my phone. (Odds are they wouldn't know what it was, anyway ... )

 

Put it on vibrate. [insert joke here]

 

Put it on vibrate to get turned on [insert serious statement here]

 

It's OK, though, to condescendingly dismiss anyone who thinks it's a bad idea to ignore the phone b/c of worst-case scenarios, right?

 

Depends on how they phrase it. If they think it's a bad idea for them because of that, then that's their choice and that's fine. If they argue that nobody should turn their phone off for that reason, then they get the condescending dismissal.

 

Oh OK I get it. Because you'd never tell anyone how to live his life or argue that your way is the only way, right?

 

Nooooooo. He'd never do that.

 

If you're afraid to answer your phone, you're pathetic and paranoid.
If you're afraid to not answer your phone, you're pathetic and paranoid.

 

My mother-in-law keeps her cell phone off constantly. Not just the ringer off. But the whole damn phone. She thinks it runs the battery to keep it on. My wife constantly harasses her about it, to no avail. She'll say she'll keep it on, and then the next time we need to get ahold of her, straight to voice mail.

When I said I keep it on post-children, I'm not just talking for worst-case scenarios. There are a million reasons you need it on that aren't doomsday scenarios.

And, yes, I know that people somehow raised children before cell phones and somehow survived.