Small ironies in the modern world, continued

(The following post has been floating in my "drafts" folder for two years now. I just now found it, and publish it now for your amusement.
(Disorganized? Me? Nahhhh...)

I just finished talking to my wife. It wasn't voluntary.

(The finish, I mean. Honest.)

Remember last night, when I mentioned the rest stop I was overnighting at had wi-fi but no pay phones? This truck stop has phones. But they don't take especially good care of them anymore. After all, when one quits, who notices?

My company's terminal in Georgia has a special semi-soundproofed room with lots of phone desks, so drivers can make all the various phone calls the trucking life calls for. Most larger truck stops have something similar--a series of soundproofed booths, or a restaurant with phone jacks at every table, or something of the sort. The smaller ones still have more space for pay phones than the average service station/convenience store.

You will note I said "phone desks." "Soundproofed booths." "A restaurant with phone jacks." "More space for pay phones." That was quite deliberate.

The phone room at my company's terminal has about three working phones. In a room with about twenty-five desks. The rest either have been removed, or have stopped working and were just left there. Every time I stop at that terminal, I have to search the room to figure out which one(s) I can use.

The truck stops aren't quite as bad, since paying customers do ask about the phones from time to time. But working phones are becoming rarer. Many have been quietly removed. And the ones still in place are occasionally kind of flaky.

Like the one I was using to talk to my wife. I didn't know until after I'd called that the cord had an intermittently faulty connection. Right after we'd covered the important information, and I'd said I had time to talk and started telling her about my day, I suddenly heard a dial tone. She will not be happy.

And I can't afford to call back and explain. Literally. Remember all those el cheapo long distance cards you used to get at convenience stores? Well, maybe you still can. The ones I find at truck stops are a bit more limited. Only a penny a minute!, they say. They don't immediately mention the connect fee. And they are careful to wait 'til way down in the fine print to mention the (much bigger) surcharge for using the card from a pay phone.

How often do you use one of those things anywhere else? Never mind.

The upshot is that a five dollar phone card is good for maybe three calls, of whatever length. Unless you're calling someone far away and intend to say everything you need to say for a week in one marathon session, communication gets expensive.

Maybe I can apologize tomorrow night.

I've got to get that cell replaced.