What's tale, nightingale?

[austin_dern]

First of all, I need to take a moment to thank mongologue. I got a package in the mail, a surprise to me. But I recognized his name, not to mention his post office. (What I don't know is how he got my mailing address. Asked me, at some point, is the logical supposition, although I don't remember it. That could be achieved by waiting a week and letting me forget.) The gift is a really sweet one: a small wooden coati figure. I didn't realize there were these things, but it's a handsome figure (of course) and I'm glad to receive it. Thank you.

Now, for the past week, my brother has been trying to organize a getting-together of between four and twelve people. As pretty much everyone in this circle has hand phones (I'm the exception there), Blackberries (my father and I are exceptions), e-mail, instant messaging (except me), and more and more contact options than you might imagine, this yields an enormous number of slightly missed contacts.

My father was on the phone with one of the prospective participants -- one of his friends, a lawyer from Connecticut who's all but retired. While talking with him on the kitchen phone, my father's hand phone, in his jeans pocket, chimed. My inclination is to let phones ring, since if you answer them they'll never learn to sleep through the night. But the complicated scheduling made it feel urgent that my father answer. So when the call with his friend ended, I smiled at my good fortune in setting up these circumstances, and told him, ``Your pants are ringing.''

Even if my father were not deaf, his, ``What?'' would have been the correct response.

The phone's ringing was a notice that it had a new voice mail message. The message was from this same friend, his saying that there was no response to my father on his hand phone, so he would call the home phone instead. Yes: he left a message that he was immediately calling.

I have to assume that when he was working full-time, he did extremely well on his billable hours.

Trivia: Henry Ford II discovered after becoming executive vice-president of Ford Motor Company in April 1943 that one department was still making Tri-Motor propellers, over a decade after the plane went out of production. Source: Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire, Ricahrd Bak.

Currently Reading: The Great Radio Heroes, Jim Harmon.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh, I asked you about a month or so ago in page-mail. I simply procrastinated in the sending, rather than had any particular devious plan.

The wooden coati is from Guatemala, by the by; handcarved and sold at a mall set up specifically to sell thing to tourists off cruise ships. I purchased quite a few gifts for assorted friends and family there, but that one was an instant "Oh, Austin *needs* this." I'm glad you received and enjoyed it; I picked the friendliest-looking one of the 5 on the table.

I have also, int he past, left messages on voice-mail indicating "I'm trying to reach you about and shall now try your other line." ..though now that you phrase it like that it does seem silly.

Hey you finally sent...

[reptilemammal.livejournal.com]

Your 2007 Christmas card and such, I am impressed so early this year.

I am just teasing of course of course it sis very sweet of you to send, my dang I want some more pangolins.

Re: Hey you finally sent...

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm not good at sending out Christmas cards, but I'm very good at receiving them. I think I'm above average in that regard, actually.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, now I think I remember it. Still, it's a great way to surprise me, by letting enough time pass that I forget everything I ever knew.

Again, thank you. It's a cute figure and I look forward to the day I'll have a desk I can put it on.

There may be a point in leaving a message saying you're trying another approach, so that people don't think the missed-phone-call is a separate issue from the one the other approach reaches. But it's still funny.