Healthy Disconnect

I’ve a phone I almost never answer. It’s a landline number through a voice over Internet system. The phone service is really cheap. It has caller ID and voice mail. This is the number I give out 99% of the time. It’s main job is to catch all the spam and junk calls I don’t want to deal with. If it’s someone I actually want to talk to I can check the caller ID or they can leave a message. Normally, if I’m home, I call them right back. 

One of the beautiful things about a landline is it doesn’t follow you around everywhere you go. When I’m out all those junk calls aren’t piling up on my cell phone. 

The cell phone number is given out to those who I really really want to talk to. Unfortunately, I find I have to sometimes give that number out to things like doctor’s offices. If I’m waiting for important test results or appoints I don’t want to miss it. 

Eventually, someone gives that number out to the wider world. Junk calls arrive in greater and greater numbers. When that gets too annoying I change my number once more. It’s my phone and I can do what I want with it.

There are time when I long for the days when I’d disappear in the deep woods to my dad’s hunting camp. Being cut off completely from civilization is nice. Most of the time I didn’t even bring a radio. What I did bring were some really good books.

-Sixbears