I just signed up for internet call waiting, which is a marvelous idea when you only have one phone line and you don't want to miss any important calls. Unfortunately, it's not such a marvelous idea when you get it all installed, and THEN you find out that it does not work if you already have call waiting installed on your phone. Once discovered, there are three choices: Either you can de-activate call waiting on your phone, thereby enabling it on your computer, or you can ignore the internet call waiting icon for the rest of your computer's life, or you can try to delete internet call waiting from your system. Guess what? It does not delete.
This brings us back to the first two options, de-activating call waiting on the phone, or ignoring that silly icon on your monitor. Actually there is a third option, which I have not attempted as of yet, and that is to activate the change/remove programs program and delete the white elephant that way. That might just make a real good project for tomorrow. I think I'll do that right after I write me a brand new web browser.
Missed calls are a real problem, especially if there is only one phone line and you receive a lot of calls during the day. You can always tell when you are missing a call too, because while you are talking to someone, there will be a "boop" sound on the line which will completely obliterate at least one word spoken by said someone. This boop will occur approximately every three seconds which makes the conversation sound a little like this:
"Oh, guess what! There's this great sale on (boop) down at Big Mart. Everything's 25% off if you have a (boop) as long as you get there by 10:00 on (boop) after that, everything will go back up to full price again. Oh yeah, and don't forget your (boop) because if you return it they'll give you a (boop) % refund. And don't forget to buy your gas at (boop) I was driving past there and saw them lowering the price to (boop) Better hurry though, there were a lot of cars pulling in there at (boop) and they'll probably raise the price again pretty soon. Well, talk to you later. Are we on for dinner tonight at (boop)?
As intriguing as dinner at (boop) sounds, I think I would rather eat at a place, the name of which I actually recognize. This is what call waiting does to phone conversations and the results are always unpleasant if not outright aggravating. But no matter how annoyed you are you will still be curious, so you interrupt your current call in order to go to another call and then you will hear "Bob" from Calcutta telling you, "Goodeveningsir,Ihopeyouarehavingawonderfulday.Ihaveawonderfuldealtoofferyou....." You listen fascinated for a while because "Bob" never pauses between his words. Then you wake up and wonder why when he heard a female voice answer the phone, he called you, "sir". As you hang up you can still hear him warbling about his wonderful deal, and you have to wonder if "Bob" ever pauses to take a breath.
Meanwhile, your previous caller has gotten aggravated by being put on hold by their so-called best friend and has hung up on you. So you call him back, and find that his line is busy. Then you wonder if he too has call waiting and is enjoying having his conversation interrupted every three seconds by annoying boops. Then you wonder if he is calling all of your mutual friends to tell them what a jerk you are for putting him on hold. This induces telephone paranoia, and every single time the phone rings for the rest of the day you will cringe, thinking that one of your pals is about to jump down your throat for being the ogre that you are.
While this paranoia is not usually fatal, it does bring about interesting new habits in your life, such as hiding in your closet and allowing the answering machine to take your calls every time the phone rings, or developing strange and unusual accents so the caller will think he has accidentally dialed Moscow. Don't worry though, because you'll get over it in time. Eventually the problem will solve itself because all of your friends will simply stop calling. Then you won't have to worry about call waiting anymore while you are searching online for new friends.
It may be easier to simply de-activate the call waiting in the first place, like from the moment you hear your very first boop, that way, your sanity stays intact and so do your friendships, even if they do have to wait for you to get out of your chat room in order to talk to you. For some people call waiting is a breeze, they handle it like pros and don't worry about the long-term effects on their friendships. For the rest of us, however, call waiting is a technological advancement of the same caliber as the Edsel. It just doesn't do the trick. You may have to wait longer to get through to people like us, but at least you'll have our undivided attention....as long as the ball game isn't on.
