unplugged

The closer we get to the election the more my phone rings. From early morning to late at night, it rings insistently. When I’m home I can answer and then just hit 9 9 9 9 9 until they give up and go away. But when I’m gone, it’s a different story. The blinking light usually means somebody I don’t want to listen to and have no desire to dialog with has called and left a message which goes on for as long as the record portion will allow, and in some cases even called back two and three times to continue their important news. And so I turned off the answering machine. And then went blithely off to my appointed rounds. Came home to yet another blinking light. Seems the answering machine has a default that says to itself, “oh, she didn’t really mean to turn us off, therefore I’ll just turn myself back on and make sure she doesn’t miss this very important maybe urgent incoming call.” Right. The answering machine is now not only turned off, it’s unplugged. And it will stay that way until I decide to power back up. Which should be some time the middle of November. If then.