Bells Are Ringing. Calling from Where?

Caller id is even better than sliced bread and direct deposit of Social Security checks. Just consider the calls I've been able to avoid taking in the last several days. You would think I've met everyone in the United States on a cruise, or at Disney World, and they're just trying to get back to me. Jesus, I'm a popular guy. Or am I?

Raleigh, Illinois,
Liberty Hill, Texas,
Williams Bay, Wisconsin,
Orlando, Florida,
Teaneck, New Jersey
Grantsville, Maryland,
Bowie, Texas,
Bellevue, Texas
Simi Valley, California (I do know someone there. It's not them.)
Atlanta, Georgia,
Lake Placid, Florida,
Germantown, Maryland,
Greensboro, North Carolina,
Newark, New Jersey,
Jersey City, New Jersey,
Bakersfield, California,
Denton, Texas,
Nassau, New York,
Oyster Bay, New York

Obviously, as anyone with a phone knows, the people who make these calls, the "robo callers," are not really in these locations. Their outgoing calls to unsuspecting people are routed through phone exchanges at those locations, and they are very likely not sitting in a boiler room in say, Williams Bay, Wisconsin. But they are somewhere annoying the rest of us.

The phone companies are at least helping to solve the problem, or at least alert us to the problem, by getting the originating number out there as part of caller ID. Additionally, the companies often are able to identify a source of a call as SPAM, like the recent call I received...SPAM? Committee.

The temptation is to answer the call and start an interrogation as to why they think I should be reached out to. This is fruitless, and will only raise your blood pressure. The advice is to let the calls ring through and don't engage with the annoying caller. 

If they let the call ring enough times, my phone records their attempt as a "message" with a red blinking light. The fun would be if they really did leave a message. At least I would know what they are hawking. Unfortunately or not, retrieving the message only results in silence. Oh well.

You can gnash your teeth and rail about the lack of privacy, but there really is little privacy. Your number is out there somewhere, and someone's got it on a list of prospects to call. The numbers are not worth blocking because they seldom repeat. The "Committee" might be trying to reach me, and I might someday in an expansive mood ask them what the hell they want with me. but I pretty much refrain from engaging. You've got to be off the grid to not be annoyed by attempts to reach you.

I do have a favorite one that I haven't gotten in a while. The tough cop sounding voice that is soliciting for the fraternal order of police chiefs of America. He's Joe something and I love to answer that one and just tell him "no." I'm tempted to tell him he's full of crap, but I play nice and just decline. Oftentimes the calls will come in a cluster, but usually by 7 p.m. there are no more. And they seem to take weekends and holidays off.

There is a modicum of decency left in the world.

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