Telemarketers and Cell Phones

I just got a call on my cell phone from a telemarketer. It was an insurance company and, of course, it was a recording. I didn’t get the opportunity to talk to a person and when I dialed the number back I heard four beeps and then the line went dead.

Now, I am already sick and tired of receiving sometimes as many as eight calls a day from unknown names and toll free numbers. I think caller ID is the greatest invention ever and I screen all of my call that come up with unknowns in the title. Most of these won’t even leave a message and if they do it will be a recorded computer generated type deal.

The aggravation comes from the fact that even though I don’t answer these numbers I have to go to the phone, pick it up and see where the call comes from. In short, they shamelessly interrupt whatever I am doing.

I was happy when I got my cell phone. I had the privilege of giving the number to only those people that I wanted to have it. I’ve had my cell phone for about a year so of course some people have picked my number up from their caller ID, but at least these are people that I contacted first so I don’t mind if they use my number sparingly. Also, since I know who they are I can choose to answer or not. I can always call them back on my landline later.

My cell phone plan includes four other phones in my family and we four people share 800 minutes. I don’t want my minutes used up by telemarketers. I didn’t realize by the number that this was a possible telemarketer. It originated from my own area code and since I don’t keep track of where all the people who might call my cell phone (possibly needing my assistance) are at every moment of the day, I answered the call.

I’m aggravated about this. It doesn’t seem legal that someone would be able to get my number without my knowledge and use up my minutes. There should be something I can do! I don’t give my number out to any businesses. The bank, the dentist, creditors, etc…none of these know my cell phone number.

My cell phone is for my use. I got it for emergency situations and I really don’t use it for anything else.

I heard on the news recently that since cell phones come with location capabilities, businesses will start monitoring where cell phones are and send them commercial relevant to the area a person is in. For instance, if you were walking in front of a Wendy’s you might get a Wendy’s commercial on your phone. The phones they were talking about were the ones with picture and video capabilities.

I don’t like this possibility. Makes me think of “Big Brother”.

Panama City Beach

I first went to Panama City Beach in 1987. We didn’t go before then because two of my uncles (bad boys) told us it was a bad place. They told us there was a lot of drinking and drugs on the strip and it was not a place that we should go.

My vision had gone from 20/20 to 20/50 in a matter of days. I had a large, black hole in the center of my left eye. After seeing four doctors in one day, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis and told that my problem could be anything from a brain tumor to multiple sclerosis. I was afraid that I was going blind. I was seventeen years old and very frightened. My mind never processed anything after brain tumor until the day I was diagnosed with MS. Since I love the beach and ocean so much, my mother, who so very much wanted to ease my troubled mind, took me to Panama City Beach for the first time.

We were pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere. It seemed to me the only places you could find drinking and drugs must have been where you would expect them to be. We didn’t see any where we were.

We had a great time. We went to King Neptune’s shop and bought seashells. We ate at an all-you-can-eat seafood bar called the Seven Seas. We played putt-putt golf across the street from the public pier and we shopped at Alvin’s Magic Mountain Mall. The most fun though was the funhouse at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park.

Since that first trip I’ve spent many short vacations there. To begin with my mom took me often. After my husband and I had been married a couple of years his sister moved to PCB and once again I found myself spending a lot of time down there. That was when we found Back Beach Road and learned the advantages of knowing the quickest way down the strip.

Now the beach has been overtaken by tall condominium buildings and you can’t even see the beach for the first several miles of the strip. The Miracle Strip Amusement Park went out of business. I know time marches on but it sure is sad what you have to leave behind.

School Memories

I started to school in 1975. Between 1975 and 1983 (1st - 8th grade), I went to 14 schools in three states.

I didn't really hate school but I was always so afraid. I was afraid of the teachers, the principal and even some of the other students. At least that's how it was in elementary school. I finally adjusted and enjoyed high school. Maybe not so much the learning as the social aspect.

I remember one incident in 1st grade that has left scars to this day.

I accidentally marked in pencil in one of my cute, little schoolbooks. A little boy who sat across from me said, “I’m going to tell!”

I begged him not to tell the teacher because I was so afraid I would get into trouble but he told anyway. My teacher called me over to the reading group table where she sat in one of the small chairs while we did reading in groups of the same level.

She asked me, “Why did you mark in your book?”
I just stood there. I was so afraid and intimidated that I just shrugged my shoulders.

She said, “You know better than to mark in a book and it better not happen again.” Then she popped me on the bottom.

“Erase that mark,” she said and sent me back to my desk.

I went back and erased the mark. I hadn’t marked in the book on purpose and I could have told her that if only I hadn’t been so intimidated.

That was the only time I was ever punished with more than a stern word in my entire school career.