Going wireless
It's one of those decisions that, for the moment, seems like a no-brainer.
R. and I hardly ever use our home phone, since it's generally easier for people to catch us on our respective cell phones anyway. As many as a third of the calls we get are nuisance calls from organizations that have loopholes to the do-not-call list, trying to sell us upgrades to services we already buy or to get us to make additional donations to their charities.
And the bills, thanks to AT&T/SBC's "bundles" of services, aren't cheap.
Every month we asked ourselves why we should pay this much for an often-annoying service we barely use. So, we've finally decided to do something about it. We're killing the phone.
At first blush, this seems brilliant and savvy. And, while I have some lingering questions -- 911 service, for example, and also pizza delivery -- I'm pretty sure it's the right thing to do. It's not like we're pioneers or anything.
But, as phone D-day approaches (service is cut off tomorrow), I'm starting to feel a weird, sentimental attachment to the "home phone."
It's the only phone with both our names on the voice mail message. And, while I don't really expect our child to be getting a lot of phone calls (at least for a while), there is something about the idea of the "family" phone that still appeals. Now, when we give a phone number to someone, we'll have to decide if they get his or mine.
I can't decide if there's something "real" here, some notion about the family unit that is being challenged, or if I have just been a total sucker for years of those incredibly touching commercials for long-distance service.
