By Lorry Myers
It begins without warning. Things will be running smoothly, quietly, and suddenly, my phone blows up. My adult children created a family text group so we might better communicate with one another. If they call and I don’t answer, or they text me and I don’t respond, they assume that I have been kidnapped, or I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. As a result, my phone is set to ring with a call, ping with a message, and vibrate when the sound is turned off.
All I have to do is respond.
I was sitting at a table with a group of women when my phone pinged once, just once. I ignored it. No one noticed and I figured whatever it was, it could wait. Then, my text message alert went off again, then again, and again, so I picked up my phone to see what was going on.
Good grief.
When I turned down the volume, that’s when the vibrating kicked in. Pretty soon, my phone was moving and shaking all over the table while I’m pretending it isn’t. Finally, one of my friends nodded toward my phone and asked, “Do you need to get that?”
No, no I don’t.
Still, the vibrating continued so I reached to turn my phone off. “Seriously,” my friend said, “maybe something happened.”
Something happened alright.
Whenever our group text blows up, luckily, it is never what you expect. Typically, family texts are like “Where are you?”, or “What’s going on tonight?”. Without warning though, something will happen to set off a barrage of messages. Along with those come emojis and movie clips and random quotes that leave me shaking my head.
Just like today.
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard
