It's almost always the way

Earlier this morning, there was a phone call I wanted to make. However, because the line was engaged I decided to leave it a few minutes and then try again.

Cue a slight tangent. My current landline phone enables me to categorise the people stored in my phonebook into groups and assign specific ringtones for those groups.

I was just on my way to the bathroom when I heard the familiar sound of Scott Joplin's The Entertainer; the ringtone assigned to 'Family'. I let out a groan because I was 99.9% certain that I knew who the caller was... My Mother! Scream 

After doing what I needed to do in the bathroom, I then popped into my son's bedroom and realised that my mother had obviously tried phoning him too.

Anyway, my mother had left us both messages asking us to phone her back, although she didn't say why. From the perspective of my son and I, we consider messages like that to be the worst kind. It's the fear of not knowing the reason WHY my mother wishes to speak to us unless we pluck up the courage to contact her. 

It has been said that we should do one thing every day that scares us. Given the choice, I think I would rather walk around outside naked, in broad daylight. If the tone of my mother's voice was anything to go by, I'm guessing she has a problem that I won't be able to assist her with anyway.

Do you receive phone calls from specific people that fill you with dread? If so, please feel free to share.

Parents
  • I get really unsettled by any unknown callers. I let them ring off, block immediately, then check 'who called me' (online site) to see if it's anything dodgy - cold callers, scams. The worst ones are those where no previous search for/report of that number have been made. It really weirds me out. Thankfully, it doesn't happen often.

    Talking of ringtones, I don't have different ones for different people (though can see how that could be very useful for prepping oneself psychologically for what lies ahead), but I do have an intentionally melancholy piece of music (the beautiful opening bars of The Shepherd's Boy from Doctor Who) as my ringtone, as you never know when bad news is going to be coming down the line at you, blindsiding you or confirming the worst. So it's moodmatched no matter what - pleasantly wistful or appropriately somber. And I think a jolly upbeat tune of which one is fond of as a 'feelgood' piece would become forever tainted by the awfulness of that tonal emotional clash. I often hear those cheery ones and think they sound complacent, like tempting fate. Totally irrational I know. But who says we have to be entirely rational? :-)

  • I too will visit sites such as 'Who called me' if I receive calls from numbers I don't recognise. However, rather than feeling weirded out when there is no information, I just feel mildly frustrated. 

    Regarding ringtones, before I bought my current landline phone, I always tended to opt for the one that sounded most like an old-school non-digital ring, until I got fed up with it, and inevitably changed it to something else.

    It may please you to know that I did previously own a mobile phone with a Doctor Who ringtone. Grinning

    You know the expression, "Each to their own"? This is what I think regarding your choice of intentionally melancholy music. Your reason for it might well seem irrational to me, but what I think is irrelevant. If you're happy with your choice of ringtone, then that is all that matters. 

  • I might change it to something more festive for Christmas (Troika or The Box of Delights or something), but then straight back to hardcore malancholia! I do really like the music in question though, which is the main thing. 

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