Why I Love Caller-ID

One thing that drives me absolutely crazy is the non-stop telephone calls I get around the dinner hour and beyond. In fact, some nights the phone doesn't stop ringing until well after 9 p.m. Thank goodness I have Caller-ID. Yes, this costs extra, but it allows me to screen my calls and to avoid talking to the nightly parade of people looking to part me from my money. No matter how many times I register my phone number with DoNotCall.gov, it doesn't seem to stop people from calling me to sell me everything from home security systems to homeowner's insurance to replacement windows to telling me that I have won a cruise (yeah, right, do you really expect me to believe that?). First off, I am not a homeowner, I merely rent a tiny apartment in a century home owned by someone else. So why I get so many calls about things like home security systems and other things that the average homeowner might want is beyond me. How I got on to somebody's call list and how I get off of it is anybody's guess. I even get those calls on my cell phone, which I have also registered with DoNotCall.gov, but my phone numbers must be immune from telemarketers, politicians and other do-gooders wanting to part me from my money. I just don't get it. Why I get the endless stream of calls night after night after night, starting about the time I walk in the door from work and not ending until well after 9 p.m. is a mystery to me. I also get the inevitable robo-calls around election time urging me to vote for (_________fill in the blank) and the reasons why I should support said candidate. Ah, well, it's a dirty business, I suppose, and in this era of high joblessness, the poor schmucks who must spend their nights dialing for dollars are probably just desperate souls wanting to make an honest buck in a lousy economy, but please, may I ask you to just cease and desist with calling my number a half dozen times a night? If I don't answer the first time, GIVE UP! I'm not going to answer, so stop trying, already! Don't waste your time on me, it's not going to work! So if you're one of those poor benighted souls who is forced to spend their nights in a calling center dialing for dollars, just remember, don't call me, don't even try, I have Caller-ID and I know how to use it, to avoid listening to your prewritten script about whatever it is you are trying to get me to do in order to give you my money. Not gonna happen. Not now, not ever. Thank you for listening. Now, can I please just go back to reading my book?