Annoyances

Thursday, 4:01 pm

By Kate

Apr

12

2007

A few months ago, you might remember me sputtering about unsolicited phone calls and how I finally registered with the Do Not Call List. It took about 30 days before my phone stopped ringing incessantly, but it mostly worked. The call volume dropped by about 75% and that made me quite happy. Those who continued to call were, as someone warned, non-profits who fall somewhere outside the rules and regulations of the Do Not Call registry. I could almost always tell who was calling with caller ID, though.

Well, that’s suddenly changed. And I mean suddenly—about two weeks ago. Now these sketchy ones are hiding behind private numbers. That’s how they appear on caller id. Not all of them, but still too many. Since a couple of friends have private numbers, I used to know when they called just by virtue of “private number” popping up on caller id. Now it’s impossible to know who’s calling. I got nailed a couple of times, yesterday and today, for contributions. One from the Massachusetts Police Association and one for Muscular Dystrophy. I ended up hanging up on both. It’s not that I’m a skin flint when it comes to supporting worthy causes, but if you’re worthy, don’t play sneaky games with me. It doesn’t sit well.

A couple of weeks ago, when this first started, Barack Obama’s campaign used the private number approach, too. It’s a little thing, granted, but that annoyed the heck out of me.

Political campaigns...be forthright. None of this sneaky private number stuff. That’s guaranteed to make my wallet close up tighter than a damned drum. It’s nothing personal. If I knew who you were, I’d be inclined to answer the phone in a generous frame of mind. Really, I would. But if you hide behind a private number, that says to me that you’re playing a little head game with me. I don’t like those manipulations. It’s not nice and it’s disappointing when you resort to these tactics.

Not that my tiny rant will change anything.

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SNOW is falling from the sky and sticking to the ground. Big fat, fluffy snowflakes that would be delightful in January, pretty in February, and even tolerable in March. But not on April 12th!

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Today was trash day and my trash guys apparently inverted their route this morning. They were here at the crack of dawn and I wasn’t prepared. They always arrive somewhere between late morning and early afternoon. Several other neighbors were caught off guard, too. I didn’t have much to put out, but I don’t really want it sitting in the trash barrel for another week. That offers Terry too much time and opportunity to devise deviously creative ways to get into it.

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So, that’s all. My annoyance level is moderately low today, but a little venting now and then helps keep it that way.