Feb 07 2010
Phony
High surf, Mendocino
I heard a strange sound.
At first, I thought it was one of the kitties scrabbling around in the pots and pans, but it wasn’t. I went over to investigate, and discovered that my roof/ceiling (it’s hard to tell when your walls curve up to a central beam and it’s kind of like living in a giant, overturned rowboat) was leaking.
It was leaking right onto the paper shade of the hanging lamp in the kitchen. You know, the one that goes on and off at will, making me think there’s a power outage coming.
I thought it was a good idea to leave it off for the time being, as I put out a pot to catch the leak. Before I could stand up, another drop of water hit me in the head. Maybe leaks are like mice, and there’s never just one. In the end, I put out three pots and hoped for the best.
Megan came by and asked me if I were blowing her off.
“??”
“Well, I’ve called you twice today and you haven’t answered the phone, so I figured you were blowing me off.”
In the interests of cheapness, I don’t have caller ID, so it’s a surprise every time I answer the phone (though to be fair, it’s mostly one of my siblings instead of secret admirers). I also don’t have call waiting. Partly because of the frugality thing, and partly because no-one ever hangs up on the other person to talk to me, so I’m kind of against it. So even if I wanted to blow someone off, I’d be hampered by not knowing who it was in the first place.
We checked the phone, and there was a dial tone. We called it, using my little purple cell phone, and it didn’t ring. Hmm. We notified Rob, and he came over to look into it. After a couple of minutes, he peered inside the glass doors and asked me if I knew the phone box was open.
Well, I didn’t even know where the phone box was (or, to be completely honest, that there was one), so I guess someone else opened it or maybe the wind blew it open. Anyway, the wires got wet, and when they are too wet, your phone won’t ring, though you can dial out. Almost an ideal phone situation, really.
But Rob did something, and the second call worked. So if you call me, I won’t blow you off.
5 Responses to “Phony”
Scorpions, leaky roof and wet phone lines… that’s a lot to take in a short period of time! *hugs*
Sorry to hear about the roof leaking, hope you can get it fixed soon. At least you got your phone back in working order, stay calm if you can Suzy, it wil all work out.
Never heard of the term blowing you off……must be an Americanism…… Interesting.
Hope your landlord fixes your leaks very soon…..
jx
Phone box??? I’m wondering if you’re living in a house older than my 90+year old apartment. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Good luck with the leaky roof. So not fun.
No, it’s just a weird hippie house. At least my phone line isn’t dragging all over the yard like my sister’s after the storm.