I can testify to that in what I experienced over the dinner hour and hope this story brings a chuckle to your day.

Have you ever been frustrated by being on hold for an extended time or dialed repeatedly trying to find a real live person at the other end of the phone? Well that was the situation with my friend Liz.

We had been scheduled to get together this evening at 7 PM to work on a report together and I thought things were abit odd when I phoned twice and got a repeated clicking sound but thought “ oh well she will phone me”….and she DID! Calling from the neighbour’s  house, where she had been on hold for 30 minutes, Liz asked me to call her cable company because all her phones were down. Instead I offered to come down to her house with my cell phone.

What you have to realize is that Liz, who is a carpenter and works 10-hour days, lives with her two teen girls, Katherine, 14 and my Makayla ,11. in one of two large houses in the bottom of Mill Creek ravine. Surrounded by parkland, hiking trails and picnic tables, these houses are few that remain near the center of the city and abit of a zoning oddity…. one can have animals like ducks and geese, cell phone reception is very intermittent and always seems to be problems with the cable and other hook ups. The other house is owned by a family of musicans and scientists. Tonight, they are having a formal dinner party of orchestra conductors from various groups from the ESO to the university bands. Liz has just got home from work, in her blue jeans and other grubs, standing in the foyer on hold to the cable company, as each of the guests arrive! You can imagine her frustration and embarrassment.

By the time I get there, she is back at home, she has finished off her glass of wine, offers me a beer and takes one herself. Dinner hasn’t happened so the girls are heating up smokies. My cell works and one of the girls dials and holds until we get the cable company technician  Keith. There are only two ways to get a real live personin these situations Liz informs me, either stay on hold or call the sales office. Keith has many questions about dial tone and clicking sounds and has Liz running around plugging and unplugging extensions in the house and garage. In the interim, Makayla has the cell phone and carries on a conversation with the technician on his day and how hers at school was BORING.

Dogs… well, this was the next addition to the mayhem occurring just as we think progress is happening… Dysis, my husky. is sleeping peacefully in the living room after sniffing the whole house, when the doorbell rings, a long chiming echoing bell! Dysis trots to the door. It is the neighbour hostess, who has brought over her dog for Liz to watch, as the dog is too active in the dinner party. Her dog is a boxer puppy of about a year named “Kitty”! Dysis escapes as the door is opened and both of the dogs are off !!  Heading of course straight to the rear of the other house and around the goose pen, who are squawking very annoyed at the intrusion. I run after Dysis and Katherine, in stocking feet, catches Kitty. Finally back in the house there is much running around, a few growls and puddle of pee as territories are established. For the dogs, it is all delightful play and finally. they are banished to the outside deck.

Liz at this point, is saying she can’t hear the technician, as she is trying to book a service call, can we turn up the volume on the cell and I take the my cell outside. A time is finally booked for Thursday by me with the company and Liz in the background swearing she hopes they will compensate her. The girls finished their smokies, and Liz got hers while I got left over turkey and cranberries. Couldn’t find my can of beer and girls asked if it was non-alcoholic in case they found it.

When all is finally settled, I burst out laughing and it felt so..oo good… this is real life!