Linear models with R
Yesterday, the Marquis wrote about the days when we did not have telephones or even addresses at the moominbeach. And it’s true. When I was a kid, my uncle Don, who was a doc in Sault Ste. Siberia, was among the few in the area who had a phone. It was on a party line but I’m guessing that the operator could break in to whoever was yakking away on it if there was a need for his services in town. There was a loud bell installed on the exterior of his cabin and I remember when it would ring in the middle of the night and, in very short order, his T-Bird would start up and off he would go. It’s sometimes so hard to believe that he and so many others of his generation are gone…
Anyway, as a teenager or 20-something, it could be annoying not to have a phone but it could also be handy if you were trying to avoid someone. One summer I went on a date with a guy that I had absolutely no interest in forming any kind of relationship with. It was a rather horrible period in my life when I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do for a living and I kind of wanted a boyfriend but I was forever getting hit on by boys that totally creeped me out. I don’t mean that they were serial killers. Just that I wasn’t interested in anything about them and they didn’t seem to have even a rudimentary clue about what I was all about and I sensed that they wouldn’t understand me. *I* don’t even always understand me!
So, in a weak moment I said, “Okay, I’ll go out to dinner with you.” I drove. That was safer for me. I forget who paid. We went back to his room in a co-op for tea (yeah). His mama called from the east coast. After about 15 minutes of that, I told him I was leaving (ladies, always take your own vee-hickle). He broke off his phone call for an awkward parting. When could we meet again? Well, I am going north. How could he get hold of me there. Uh, I do not have a phone or address up there. Phone? True. Address? I could’ve given him my parents’ but I lied. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Yes, I should’ve just told him straight out to get lost. Me? Socially awkward.
Epilogue? I never saw him again. But. Wouldn’t you know, he did not go back to the east coast to be with his mama. He stayed on the Planet Ann Arbor, got married to someone not-me and raised some kids. And wouldn’t you know, those kids were in Commie High at the same time that Mouse was. Somebody was raving about the family once. Did I know TWG and his kids? My creepy little systems analyst type brain spent a few split seconds putting two and two together and I started backing up. Beep beep beep. Nope. Don’t know him. Nothing to see here. Seeya in the next episode.
These days? Sheesh. I can’t imagine being without my phone. It’s tethered to me wherever I go. That said, it is *my* phone. It isn’t listed in the phone book and I give out the number only to people I actually need or want to hear from telephonically. Anyone I can train to use email or text message, I do. The Commander used to complain that one of the Engineer’s friends used the telephone like a weapon. I now know what she meant.
P.S. Worked 8 hours, walked 9 miles. If there are any damn typos or unintelligible sentences or whatever in here, deal with it. Maybe I’ll even fix them tomorrow 😉
August 19th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
I once went out on a blind date with a guy because he had a Corvette. And that was ALL he had going for him, trust me. I don’t like being tethered to my phone, so I avoid it when I can. It’s just a device to me and a very annoying one at that. (especially when people call me up to tell me stuff I don’t want to hear) But I do love my computer, most of the time.