Not dead, just no phone

Usually, part of my evening routine includes plugging my cell phone into the charger. I use it quite a bit each day and it usually at least needs to be topped off (yes, I know that's a bad thing to do.... Oh well....). Oddly, last night when I plugged it in it said "Charging Complete". So I unplugged it.

This morning, the phone was OFF. Oddness... So I turned it on and it told me "No Service" and promptly turned off again. So I plugged it in and let it charge before I left to run some errands. It mostly charged but still.... "No Service".

I tried numerous times to call Normy only to get dead air. I tried to send text messages. "Message Not Delivered" As I waited for Starbucks to fix my fix, I noticed a woman looking at her phone in puzzlement and shaking it (cause SHAKING will help). She had no service either. Neither did anyone else in the place.

When I paid for my fix, the barista said "the credit went through" to her co-workers. Uh...yea....ok....

I went over to Longs and bought a couple of things. I tried to pay using my debit card. It did not work. Credit worked.

I had no problems at The Natural Food Co-op.

Bel Air wouldn't let my debit card go through. So we switched it to credit. My friend who works there said that my bank was having trouble with the debit feature. But they were having problems with some of their phones. As I was leaving I noticed the store manager there in his regular clothes (not his Official Bel Air Attire) and heard him say "Ok, so THAT phone will get calls IN, but none of these work for the store and no calls OUT at all?"

I stopped off at home and put the ground beef in the fridge and went to the scrapbook store. Michele asked if anything strange was going on as soon. as. I. walked. in.

They couldn't get their credit card machines to work and the phone was saying "all circuits are busy". Michele's cell phone worked, however.

I got home and the phone was dead.

But the DSL connection was working. I had an email saying "CALL ME!" from Normy. Wondering if I was dead. I had been able to ....almost.... get through to him but not enough for us to actually communicate. He sent text messages that I did not return. The home phone was busy. He called a friend out of state to see if she could get through to me.

Nope. Not dead. Just without ability to communicate with the outside world. If I hadn't had computer access I would have ceased to exist! And Normy was about to drive home from work to look for me. HIS phone worked.

Some dorkus sliced through a fiber optic cable. I'm thinking they need to quit digging up the roads and quit risking the accidental cable slice. Leave. The. Roads. Alone.

All of sudden my cell started ringing as multiple text messages and voicemails started coming in. All asking "are you ok?" "where are you?" and "I can't get a hold of you!"

Imagine back in the olden days when we weren't instantly available....