Mar 31 2008
Call Somebody Today
(Note: New banner for April 2008 today. You might have to force a refresh in your browser. It’s a bush eating a fence.)
After a somewhat difficult day at work Monday, it was great to talk on the phone with my wife for nearly 30 minutes. Her dad’s in town visiting — mostly while I’m on a work trip. I finished up at the customer’s site too late to talk to Benjamin, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Sure, I missed him, but talking with Shannon one-on-one was what made me fall in love with her.
It was, in the words of the mighty Rick Ocasek, just what I needed.
After that, I got a call from my dad asking for computer support.
We laughed while we talked through his problem related to Yahoo! Sitebuilder. Then it dawned on me. My father, who years ago took his sweet time kicking and screaming from DOS to Windows, built his own Web site and just added his first PDF file, generated from an Excel file created mostly if not completely by my mother.
I was glad I was already sitting down. Next thing I know, he’ll be hammering out PHP-Nuke modules.
Those two phone calls did wonders for my mood, much better than any e-mail ever could. The written word, while nice for its own purpose, replaces human speech too often.
Pick up the phone and call somebody today instead of e-mailing. You’ll both be glad you did.
It’s something I tried to say in my blog recently…. thanks for pushing the cause! *chuckling*
I love the new banner.. but why not tell us about it please.
Oh, and do you remote control into your dad’s PC when you have to help him?
If you need one, I have a WONDERFUL tool to help you do that, if you’re interested. I use it with my brother when he needs help.
Have a great day Mark.
Dave - Maybe your suggestion was somewhere in my mind when I wrote this.
The new banner features some kind of plant that was growing in abundance behind a local middle school’s chain-link fence. Benjamin and I had taken an exploration break from walking/riding around the football field’s track. The fence’s dark color and the plants’ light color drew me over there. “Bush” isn’t really the right word for them. They were some type of hollow-stemmed plant that hasn’t leafed out yet. I thought milkweed at first, but I really have no idea.
As far as remote support goes, I’m interested in trying whatever you have. Other tools I’ve tried in the past required too much tech support in the first place just to get them up and running on the supportee’s end.
Speaking of supportees, off to work I go.
The new banner reminds me of a picture I saw a few weeks back of a large tree that had nearly completely consumed a small motorcycle over the years. Only visible were both tires, the handlebars and the rear exhaust. The rest of it had been completely enveloped. Now THAT was cool!
And Mark, I’ll be sure to call my wife today. I’ll let her know you told me to. (But she’ll probably read this first.) I first contemplated calling my comment in to you on your cell phone, but once I realised I’d be depriving everybody ELSE of my reply, I decided against that route.
So, what’s your number??? Ha ha. I call Simon at work almost every day just to hear his voice. I know I know that probably just made you throw up a little bit.
Simon doesn’t usually call home when he is out of town. I think he doesn’t want to hear that the kids are being handfuls. I keeps the guilt away I am sure ;O)
With my husband gone a lot, SOME of our most meaningful conversations have been over the phone. I am all for putting away the laptop and going for the phone. Thanks for a good reminder….I posted one on my blog today as well!
Look for an email from me this morning