Month: January 2011

My Phone Man

If you call me you will probably hear my phone man. He was packaged right with the phone amid the foam packing material.  He went right to work without so much as a word to anyone. In the beginning quite a few people asked when I was going to  personalize my greeting. But after four years, no one mentions it much.   

Some believe he is a little dry and mechanical.  But, hey I say — he’s a pro and pros do not go about encouraging one and all to have-a-nice-day.   

I’ve come to like the sound of his voice as he manages those annoying calls from siding companies and iffy charitable organizations. He also does an excellent job of buying time when I am hurrying to get ready to leave the house and cannot slow down for any kind of casual chat. He never breaks down and says, ‘Oh, hold on,  here she is —!” 

He records prescription information, lets me know when my orders have arrived and is always on top of the date of my next dentist appointment. Frankly, I cannot for the life of me — understand why people don’t use him more.

I’d love to invite him and his family to dinner but when ever I think about doing that — I remember that every time you ask him anything, he says, “I’m sorry, we can’t come to the phone right now.”  

Well, I guess I could leave a message.

One/One/One One

How often do you get to write a headline like that?

I’m enjoying Clean Slate day — not to be confused with Clean Sheet day that happens, more or less, on a weekly basis as opposed to once a year. It’s a new beginning, a fresh start — it’s reinvention, rebirth and renewal. (And you thought it was just Saturday.)

This year, instead of making a list of declarations, at day’s end, I plan to catalog all of things that I have accomplished. Three hundred and sixty-four days from today I expect that I will be flat-out astonished. For instance, this morning I watched a movie, read yesterday’s paper and two short stories by the woman who wrote Out of Africa.  And here it is, only just — noon.

I suppose I need a vision of the target I have in mind. Okay.  

By year’s end, I want to marvel at new things I have learned, be satisfied with things I have done, feel comfortably healthy and fit, and look back on a host of hilariously good times with family and friends.  

I best get started.

Happy New Year!