Phone Line ... Number THREE!

So ... the saga continues

I was continually hoarding the main phone line with my constant online activities. In order to keep peace in the family I decided to get a second phone line back in July of 1996.

This helped at first but it did not solve ALL of the household phone problems.  In time it created even worse problems because we STILL had to share the pc and the second phone line.  Instead of just one phone line to argue over, it became two ... plus there were four of us in the family.  T'was a losing battle no matter how you looked at the situation.

You can only imagine the chaos around here, demanding our rights to the pc or the phone.

Fortunately, my son dropped out of the competition early on.  He never talked on the phone and besides, his best friend had unlimited access time on his internet service provider so he began to spend more time over there.

Now there were just three of us competing for the pc and the phone.

Hmmmmmmm, maybe we would survive now that we girls beat out the lone boy of the family!

Shortly thereafter, I joined into a business venture with an associate of mine. It was a deal too good to be true folks, and I insisted on a contract.

My deal was that I keep the books for my new client and my client provides the pc.  Plus, I get full use of the pc for any other activities.  Some deals are too good to pass up!

Besides, I had my family to consider in this deal. We really needed another pc to occupy our time.

The major problem that has arisen since I got the second pc has been ... what does the THIRD person do while one person is online with phone line #1 and the other person is online with phone line #2???

We're so caught up in online activities, we seem to tune the third person out!  And ... sometimes that third person is me!!

We are sTrEsSiNg oUt as a family again.

So ... here I go again, thinking long and hard like I do in cRiSiS sItUaTiOns ...

I immediately decided that there was no other way to survive as a family except to get theTHIRD phone line.

A couple of weeks later we were all set to have the third line installed. I thought everything would go according to plan ...

First they'd install the third line in the kids' rooms and I'd only have one jack charge. Then the installer would fix the other jacks throughout the house to accommodate the third line at no additional charge.

But I thought of one simple question ... "Which of three phone lines do I want hooked up on my two line phone in the master bedroom?"

Ohmigosh, I shouldn't have asked myself!!  Now I had a new sTrEsSfUl dilemma ...

I sure don't want to buy a three line phone to accomodate all of the phone lines in the house. Should I keep the main phone line with voice mail on my bedroom phone?  Do I put the kid's phone line on MY phone too so that I can keep tabs on their phone usage??  Or do I keep the second line on it for my private use when nobody is online and someone's using the pc that is tied into the main phone line???

I was getting cOnFuSeD again.  It was easier to buy a new car than it was to decide what to do with the third phone line!

With the car, all I had to do is sign on the dotted line and sign away my paychecks for the next five years!!

In the end I decided to opt for no new phone at all and got a pager instead.

As it turned out, the pager solved only part of the problem for me. Half the time, the two phone lines were tied up and I couldn't return my pager calls until my scheduled hour of online time.

We still argue over the phones, but that's life.

At least we're communicating!!