Instant Access…is it really a good thing?

Here is what happened. The hubs leaves the house the other day and leaves his business cell phone plugged into the wall charger. I realize just a few minutes after he has pulled out of the driveway as I walk by the counter and see his phone still plugged into the wall.

Can I call him to tell him that he needs to come back to the house, that would be a big NO!

So I sit and wait patiently for him to call, which he does shortly after getting to the office. If he has an unusually busy day he will ask if I can bring him his phone, which being the dutiful and wonderful good wife that I am I usually do. However he just asked me to keep and eye out for it in case it rang and then to call him at the office if the need arose.

All morning long as I worked on my disciple bible study there was nary a peep out of the device.

Later as I worked on my random dozen it remained silent,

Having finished my morning to do list I busied myself getting ready to go the the grocery store.

As I was walking across the parking lot into the Ingells I realize that I had in fact walked out and left the hubs cell phone still plugged into the wall. I guess 28 years of marriage have caused us to be genetically forgetful about the every same things.

I silently reassure myself that all will be well and that unless the world of “In Motion Scales and Calibrating Equipment” suddenly erupt into one giant technical meltdown then I might be able to get my shopping done and get back home without incident.

I head to the hair salon for a trim then into the grocery store. I was gone two hours tops. As I am settling myself back into the drivers seat I pull out my blue tooth and hook back into the Borg collective, I glance down at my phone and see that I have missed three calls?

Three calls!

On any given day my cell phone maybe rings once, no one ever calls me.

There I sit staring at my phone and I look down and notice that although I do have three missed calls, numbers of which I do not recognize, I also notice that there are no pending voicemail messages.

I start to have a rolling conversation with myself.

“Well if it was a dyer emergency then whoever it was would have left a message.”

“Did I remember to program the high school clinic number into my phone?”

“No I didn’t program it into the phone!”

“I must be going deaf because I so did not even hear the phone ring! Am I going deaf? Maybe so!”

“Did I forget to pay the cell phone bill and my phone has been turned off?”

“Maybe the son got a new cell phone and the granddaughter has swallowed a handful of pocket change they are on there way to the emergency room”"

“Maybe my house is burning down and the neighbors are trying to reach me to tell me that my house is burning down, but wait the neighbors do not have my cell number!”

All this keeps running through my head as I am driving back to the house loaded down with grocers and a new hair cut.

I also began to wonder when did it become so entrenched in us that we must be available all the time.

I should be able to make a run to the store without having to worry about missing a call!

When did it become a requirement to be instantly accusable at all times, 24 hours a day seven days a week?

I return home, which is not burning down, and find the DD safely and healthy doing her homework at the kitchen counter.

I check the hubs phone and notice that there have been no calls on that either.

So who was it that called me three times and did not leave a message?

It was the hubs, from a different office line that I do not have programmed into my phone.

Why didn’t he leave a message, the world or me will never know.

It’s ok to miss a call now and again. When you look downs and see that you have missed three in the span of maybe ten minute you get this sense of urgency and, well I don't know about y'all but I was a bit alarmed.

So here is my question.

Are you instantly accessible all the time?

Do you unplug on occasion?

If you saw three missed calls from the same number in the span of 10 minutes and no message what would you think?

Sometime I find it all just too exhausting to try to keep up with the expectation of begin available.

Half Pint, Mary, Willy, Carrie and Ma and Pa got their mail once every three months in Walnut Grove and lived perfectly content lives.

Walnut Grove take me away!

Blessings

R