One "Ringy-Dingy"

Remember the old tv show from the late 60's, early 70's - Laugh-In - with Rowan and Martin? Remember the routine Lily Tomlin used to do on that show of the goofy telephone operator? She would always start out by saying "One ringy-dingy" and then, snort a bit of a laugh out. I always loved that routine of hers. Not that this post has anything to do with telephone calls like hers - not quite, anyway.

Last night, the phone rang - daughter Mandy answered it and I could tell, pretty much, by bits and pieces I heard her say that the party on the other end was the older daughter, Carrie. As they were talking, Mandy was moving about between the living room, kitchen, dining room, then trying to feed Kurtis, all the while, talking on the phone. No big deal there, right? Right.

Well, Maya was sort of wandering around the house and then, I heard her talking - looked over my shoulder at her and there she was, with "her phone" - which is really an old cellphone that had been her dad's at some point in time when it functioned.

Maya had the phone open, like she was actually going to use it ya know and she would tuck it up on her shoulder, under her left ear, cock her head to rest on the phone and her shoulder and then she would say "Hello? Yes?" Close the phone up and immediately re-open it and replay this scenario, over and over while her mother and aunt were gabbing away. Really cute to watch, to listen to her mimic the openings of phone conversations that way.

But, if you are talking on the phone to someone -like her aunt, or Uncle Clate or "Poppy" (Grandpa Ertmer, that would be) and ask her if she would like to talk to this or that person, the response you usually get from her then is "Okay, okay. All done. All done!" Which translated means pretty much "No, I won't -no I don't want to talk to that person on the telephone!"

And don't bother me no more with silly questions like that either -is pretty much the tone of voice she uses when she backs off from chatting on the phone.

And, I'm hoping that she maintains that attitude about phone conversations for many years to come too. Although, if she is anything like her mother, that will be a very short-lived wish there.

Oh well, as long as she doesn't decide to try dialing any numbers what with her fascination for ALL NUMBERS - as it could play some nasty tricks on me with my phone bill some day down the road with bunches of long distance phone calls all dialed by accident.

So, to preclude the potential of that happening, I took steps today to change my telephone service over to a plan Verizon offers -and which my cousin Nancy told me about last week when we were chatting on the phone. Supposedly, this plan will only run me about $44-46 a month and will give me unlimited long distance dialing services toll free!

At least, I'm hoping it works out that way. However, in retrospect, I probably should have convinced Mandy to have that plan set up on HER phone and I should have had my phone set up to the cheapest plan possible because normally, the only calls on MY phone are those being made to dial in to the internet through my lovely (NOT) ISP - good old Peoplepc.com!

To use the unlimited long distance services I will have beginning Monday, we'll still have to sign of the internet to use my phone! And, we will still have no long distance service on Mandy's phone either so, to make any long distance calls and use that phone, we'll still need a phone card.

Kind of defeats the purpose of it all now don't 'cha think?