I was just watching TVNZ One News at 6 when a mobile phone text alert sounded. 'Odd' I thought 'that sounded like the phone in my pocket'. But it must have been the phone on the table. No. The phone in the bedroom? No. The one in my pocket? No. So presumably it was from someone in the Newsroom on the television. How many times has that happened to me recently in shops, at the school prizegiving and even on the croquet lawns where, in a tournament, you can get a warning and even have a game awarded against you? Many, many times.
How many other electronic noises does your house contain and your car and the supermarket and just about everywhere else that you frequent?
The Cottage is the minimal place in my life. It is the place where I live a simple life when compared with my Eagleton home. However the longer I've lived here the less simple the life has become. This evening's electronic moment made me think.
Even in The Cottage when the power fails an electronic alarm sounds; when the fire alarm battery runs down it beeps incessantly until the battery is changed; when the washing machine finishes its cycle it plays an electronic tune; when the dishwasher finishes it beeps every minute; the house phone beeps when the battery is low or there's a power outage; my cellphones beep; my computers beep at the drop of a hat; my car beeps when the door is opened and the key is in the ignition; the alarm beeps when the car is touched and the alarm has not been deactivated. I am surrounded by beeps.
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"Meep, meep," said the Road-runner!
ReplyDeleteI don't have all that many beeping things in my home, but I quite often find myself jumping when a phone rings on TV, thinking it to be my own... In the summer, when people have their balcony doors open, I also sometimes jump up to go and answer the phone when in fact it turned out not to be mine but a neighbour's. I have also (in the summer) failed to go and open my own door when not expecting anyone... taking for granted the sound came from next door!
ReplyDeleteIn one of the more intense classes at the university, we were warned in the class syllabus to turn our cell phones off upon entering. Of course, many of the young students had a difficult time with this. One young lady was glared at by the professor, sufficiently enough to frighten me when her phone rang during class. She fumbled with it and put it away as the professor warned her. Not a minute later, the same phone rang again and she was asked to leave class! Very severe, I think. But it is most unnerving when in church or some place where reverence is important. I must admit that I have forgotten once, just once, quite a few years back to turn my phone off in church. Of course, it rang. I was mortified. I learned my lesson. Now, I am probably too obsessed with it. For instance, in the above mentioned class at the univ. I took no chances. I put the phone on silent AND I turned it OFF when I walked in the door! Ha!
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