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12/14/2004 Entry: "answering machine"

My answering machine has died. The buttons for playback of messages had been acting sluggish and unresponsive for months.
These last weeks, I've had to call my own phone number from another location just to check my messages via remote command.
As a last ditch effort, I tried to open up the box and try to realign the buttons but to no avail. Two of the screws were in there so tightly that the grooves in the heads just ended up completely stripped out and unremovable.

After much thought, I decided to give my five-year old 40 DM AB the Gnadenstoss and smash it against the cold stone wall in a shower of glorious black plastic and capacitors. It was beautiful and poignant. Thing is, I don't have an answering machine for the time being.

So maybe I'll get the ole modem out and try to set up something on my comp like the kids all had on their Dells back when I was in college. Or buy a new AB.

In the meantime, just let it ring ten or twenty times before I pick up. I'm probably just asleep or taking a dump. Then again, no one ever calls me but telemarketers and confused elderly ladies who hit the wrong buttons.