For the past few days, a very strange thing has been happening. As I sit here at the computer, on-line or off-line, my telephone answering machine begins to announce: "Wednesday, 6:15 p.m." " Wednesday, 6:15 p.m." "Wednesday, 6:15 p.m." Then silence for several seconds. Then, "Wednesday, 6:16 p.m.", Wednesday, 6:16p.m.", Wednesday, 6:16 p.m." Then silence, then it is repeated for the next minute, "Wednesday, 6:17 p.m.", etc., three times. Five minutes of silence passes, then it starts repeating the new time, three of them, for three minutes. And so on. Now, how long could you listen to this before you began to think YOU'RE crazy? It took me 15 minutes, and I had to go into the other room and close the door
When it first happened, I was on-line, and thought, "Oh no, someone is trying to get ahold of me!" I jumped off line and pressed the little "listen" button. "No message," says this spectral voice. "Oh," I said. ? ! *? While I was looking at the machine, the voice began again. The computer was off. What's going on? So, I turned the answering machine off. Five minutes of silence, and "Wednesday, 6:22 p.m." Yikes! Now I'm just a little worried. I look closer at the machine. I try the answer button again. "No message".
I try to find out how to unplug the d..n thing. Well, you know how many wires there are running around a computer, and we have a pencil sharpener, a pair of headphones, and other wires that probably have no use whatsoever, so I was afraid to mess with it. DB was working late, so I went to bed.
Thursday a.m., no spirit voices from the machine. I checked my E-Mail, read The Coffee Bean Goddess, with no interruptions from The Voice. I went to work. Last night, sitting here reading journals, it began again. "Thursday, 7:15 p.m." I tried poking and prodding it. The time was announced for three minutes every five minutes. I finally found the plug, and unplugged it from the wall. Hooray!
I'm sitting here, trying to work up the energy to write an entry, and, "Thursday, 7:23 p.m." So I took the back off the d..m thing and intended to rip out the battery back-up. It's wired in! Now what kind of help is that? I would have to find a tiny screwdriver to disconnect it. In disgust, I left it in pieces on the corner of the computer table. GRRR!
And I went to bed
(Are you beginning to see a pattern here?)
This morning, laden down with all the junk I have to take to work, I hit the garage door button, and the door went up six inches, then down again. (?) I hit it again. Same thing. Five times later, still the door goes up six inches, then back down. Now, DB has left for the YM in town, 10 miles away. I have to get this car into the garage to have its expired inspection renewed and meet my friend for a ride to work. And I have a hair appointment in 5 minutes (6:00 a.m.). I put all my stuff down on the rickety top stair of my very rickety garage steps, and pull the emergency cord. Good! Now I can lift the garage door by hand.....NOT! It goes up six inches and won't go any farther.
Next scene: Me, in the snow, laden down with my shoes, my Daytimer, my lunch box, and my purse, trudging through the snow to my hairdresser's. Fade out. Sigh.
So, bear with me while I recite the old prayer from the Scottish Book of Common Prayer:
7:54 PM
I was too tired to write last night. DB was out being an interim Boy Scout Leader, so I had the house and the computer to myself. This should have been a perfect time to write; but I just couldn't. I read all my E-Mail, answered a couple, read some journals and had a dozen things I wanted to talk,er, write about, but I still couldn't do it. I went to bed.
and things that go bump in the night,
GOOD LORD, DELIVER US!
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