hen I was a young lad of twenty or so, I was in a long-distance (i.e. stupid) relationship. To talk to my west coast girl, I had to wait until 11pm Sunday night (8pm her time) to afford the crippling long distance changes. Turns out, in retrospect, I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. Oh well.

But what bugs me is the world we live in now. People have phones that can instantly, cheaply connect you with anyone around the planet. Often in coffee shops, I’ll hear young people taking call after call, text after text, fully in contact with their posse.

Fine. Brave new world.

But two things. First, why is it even remotely possible, with email and phones and everything, to not let someone know you won’t be fulfilling an expected call? I mean, if you know you won’t be able to talk to a friend, can’t you text or email and just say, “Sorry, old bean. No luck tonight.” It would at least save me from being aware of a possibility of interruption, allowing me to get involved in something intense (such as a book, a game, a video, or model-building). While I wait for the call that never comes, all my amusements are transitory.

And second, service people. They have your phone number and text information right there. If they tell you a range of time, they should let you know they are inbound so you can be ready for them (same thing – I don’t want to be in the middle of Spelunky when the Truly Nolan guy come knocking). And worse, when you do hang around all day and yet a service guy doesn’t even show up for his service time. Really? You’ve got the bloody phone in your pocket. As soon as you know you won’t be making the appointment, release us from housesitting bondage and let us get on with our lives.

Honestly, I don’t know why this seems to be such a problem. Then again, you are only as good as your word, and some people just aren’t very good, it seems.

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