« bummer, I thought I'd like this... | Main | fall, yay! »

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

weird phone problems, and sneezes

I got more done today than I have in quite a while, for the simple reason that our phone lines got all messed up and I couldn't connect to the Internet till 3 p.m. *ahem*. We have two phone lines, one for the Internet, and for some reason during the night some wiring got messed up in one of the jacks in the house, so that whenever you pick up a phone (or open the modem connection), both lines would be picked up at once. Suffice to say, this made calling people a bizarre experience, and it heartily confused the poor modem. Very weird. And of course we don't pay for inside-the-house line insurance; T is a telecommunications technician so he can handle that kind of thing just fine. Except that right now T is 300 miles away. So I had them disconnect our extra line for the time being, and we're back in the dark ages, not able to stay connected too long lest someone try to call. Sheesh, and I don't even have Callwave anymore. We'll probably sign up for LTL when T gets back -- I'd do it now, since we've been meaning to anyway, except I don't touch things Inside The Box of our computer -- that's solely his domain, so he'll have to be the one to install the card thingamabob (you can see how technically inclined I am, just based on that one word, can't you).

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know why some people have to yell in order to sneeze? Has there been any research done on this? There are so many different kinds of sneezes, really. Now me, I sneeze like a normal human being. ;-) But then there are my husband and my son (who just blasted my eardrums, which was what brought about this train of thought, in case you were wondering), who sneeze like they're trying to scare away an intruder or possibly a wild animal, or at least make me startled enough to wet myself. ("YAH-CHOOO!!" doesn't even begin to cover it). And then -- well, there was this girl in high school, God love her, but she sneezed these tiny little a-heem sneezes, without even seeming to expel any air, and it seems like that just wouldn't have done her any good at all. But who am I to say.

--------