Friday, March 27, 2009

A pleasant day

My aunt is a Luddite of sorts. Actually, she is a major Luddite. I frequently phone her on my way to work. (You needn’t worry – I am walking, not driving.) Sometimes, I am sure she is home, but not getting to the phone on time, since I am also sure that she would never wish to miss an opportunity of talking to me. I have given her my cellphone number, but she has never once called it. She has a cell phone herself, but I don’t think she has ever made a single call on it. There are various reasons for this – the complexity of cell phone use for one (totally understandable), and the prepaid time being wasted on a call to me, for another. She is a very frugal individual. Very. Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe she thought you could only call a cell phone with another cell phone. So today I asked her why she never called my back when I was on my way to work. Actually, she does call me back, but on my home phone where I won’t get the message till I return from work. I pointed out that she could call me on my cell phone from her regular phone. A little later, as I was walking to the store, I gave her a call to invite her to dinner, and she didn’t answer. A bit after that, I got a call from “Number Withheld.” I never answer those, so I just deleted it. When I got home there was a message from her. “Was that you who called me just now?” I asked. Indeed it was. “Why do you have your number withheld?” I wondered. Actually, I knew perfectly well why, because not only is she frugal, she is paranoid and certain that people all over the state are monitoring her movements, plotting to rob her. “I get calls from all sorts of strange people, and I don’t want them knowing my number,” she explained.
Here she and Ana are preparing to eat the lentil shepherd’s pie and yummy lemon pudding I made for them.

5 comments:

bex said...

What a pretty pan your shepherd;s pie's in!

joannamauselina said...

It certainly is. I was casting about for something to cook it in, thinking glass, when, with joy, I realized that the perfect one was sitting right in front of me.

Samos said...

What does the Luddite think of your new/old red phone? :-)

joannamauselina said...

She likes it, of course. And so do I. It makes me happy whenever it rings - as you predicted.

FuguesStateKnits said...

I've got to stop reading your blog when I'm about to fix myself some dinner!