Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:56:08 -0500
From: "Mike B." <yahoo at omniphile.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: landlines
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On 12/28/2012 3:34 PM, Tamar Lindsay wrote:
> I also have unlimited long distance included in my landline phone-and-computer subscription.  I hate cell phones but have sometimes
> had to borrow one because there are almost no pay phones now
> - because of cell phones... Communication is now _more_
> restricted, even for those who have the things, because
> the cell areas don't cover everywhere.  Pay phones
> used to cover everywhere there was phone service, and
> before they died out you could use a phone card and not
> have to have $5 in quarters with you at all times.

Payphones covered the same places you have cell coverage now, and didn't
cover the places you don't. I've had coverage in places that never even
dreamed of having a pay phone...like on the roadside halfway between
Frederick and Hagerstown.  There are places with no coverage, such as
the parts of West Virginia near the radio telescopes where the FCC has a
"no radios" zone established, or out west in the Rockies in many places
where the mountains block the signals from the existing towers, but
around here, with Verizon, I've not found many places I can't get a
signal without going underground...and even sometimes there when there's
a repeater set up.

> I haven't yet seen a cell phone that will ring loud enough
> to wake me up.  That might be an advantage...

You must sleep very soundly...mine has no trouble waking me, but I'm
easy to wake up.

You might have one of the techie folks make up a sound-triggered wakeup
device for you.  When the phone goes off, it triggers the wakeup device,
which inflates a wedge-shaped air bladder under your mattress, which
dumps you onto the floor.  If you can sleep through *that*, seek medical
help.

-- Mike B.