Blocking Calls

My posting lately has been hit and miss. Between wi-fi issues and the pain in my thumb joint …..

I am supposing that with age comes a certain amount of pain, but I wish my body would decide on one part to annoy at a time. My right thumb joint and elbow joint have been collaborating to cause as much pain and inconvenience as possible. Just moving my hands over the keyboard has become an event that will make me pay. I am gooped up with Tiger Balm and have some pain meds on board, so I may not be coherent, but I am not hurting right now. 

It is all a trade off, pain versus a sound mind. The weather is a bit chilly and I woke in pain this morning. I dutifully washed the dishes from last night, hoping the hot water might loosen things up. It did, so I went on to tackle the changing of the sheets that I avoided yesterday. All that pulling and tugging because I like my sheets to be taut and without any wrinkles.

I even managed to get an early start on tonight's dinner before I succumbed to the pain killer. While awaiting the onset of relief, I was outside pinning my sheets to the line and enjoying the brisk wind that whipped them about with satisfying snapping noises. My canine companions were overjoyed to follow me about the yard. That went so well that I decided to hang all the laundry out to let the wind and sun dry it free.

On the third trip out, it all went to hell in a handbasket. I tend to favor slinging the wet items on my left shoulder to avoid bending up and down to a clothes basket. This is really important if I forget to take my bifocals off. Bending up and down makes me dizzy if I am wearing them, and I can see well enough to pin clothes to a line without them. My left shoulder was piled high with the work shirts of HeWho wipes his hands on his clothes much like a 4 year old. The phone rang. 

The phone was tucked underneath the pile on my shoulder. I was annoyed as I shifted my load to access the phone. I continued out the door and tripped on the boy cat Martha, who looked up at me disdainfully, but refused to move. I called out my normal greeting and a man kept hollering "Hello, can you hear me?" I could, the problem was that he could not hear me. I pictured an old man driving hurtling down a road trying to make a call with his phone on mute. Whatever, I hung up.

It rang again as I was in the middle of pinning a shirt to the line. I answered again and the same man asked if my phone was working "now". That annoyed me, as nothing was wrong on my end, but since it was a possible money paying camper, I made nice.

It was not a camper. It was a man trying to convince me to change my account to process credit cards. He tells me that he is "getting back to me and returning my inquiry" about his company. My pain meds are kicking in and my filter of niceness has dissipated. "No, you aren't, because I have not called you." I say to the man. Not knowing what he has just stepped in, he decides to argue with me. I am most always up for a good debate, so I decide to participate.

He tells me my name, first and last like this is some sort of proof that I have called and left a message. I tell him that does indeed have my name and that the information is easily accessible in a number of ways. I also tell him that I do not handle this particular aspect of the business, so talking to me would not really help him. Then he says that he has spoken to my husband and says his name, as if parroting this information makes him more believable. "Well, if that is true, why are you bothering me?" I ask. "Well," he says, "do you take credit cards?" That information is also on my website and I am becoming more annoyed.

"Of course, we do. And, once again, I do not handle that aspect of our business." He proceeds with his sales pitch and I interrupt him and ask him why he is bothering me, that if he had indeed spoken to the man in charge he already knew what his answer was to his proposal.

Finally I interrupted him for the last time and said, "Look, if you talked to my husband and he was even remotely interested, you would have been given a different number to respond with. This just proves to me that you are either stupid, or you believe I am and will entertain your proposal. I can assure you that I am not stupid, just extremely annoyed at the likes of you. Goodbye."

He called back before I had a chance to block the number. I wonder if he gets paid by the call, or by the results.