Roger’s Roundup
I don’t know if any of you faithful readers have ever had the joyful experience of acquiring a cellphone number that once belonged to someone else.
When I moved to Snyder, I reluctantly decided to go ahead and ditch my longtime Big Spring phone number and acquire a local phone number. I say “reluctantly” not because I’m diametrically opposed to possessing a Snyder phone number. Truth be told, I knew it was going to be a fairly large hassle. There were about a bajillion people who knew my phone number, and getting them trained on my new number was going to be — and is still — a long-term headache. If not for a couple of factors, I probably would have just kept my old digits.
One, every time I called somebody or some business in Scurry County, I was calling long-distance. I actually don’t think it costs any more these days (somebody alert me if I’m wrong), but simply having to dial 1 (325)… before most of the numbers I dial on a daily basis was getting to be a pain.
Even worse, I have a local desk phone at the palatial Snyder News offices. On the desk phone, I could call, say, the Scurry County Public Library by dialing 573-5572.
On the cell I had to dial 1(325)573-5572.
I found myself often (frequently, not a person who has lost his parents) dialing the wrong thing on the wrong phone.
Plus, I wanted local people to be able to call me on my cell without the added inconvenience of dialing 1(432)… before my number, at least until they got me in their contacts. It’s pretty cool how technology is making most of this into a molehill.
At least, I figured, along the way I’d lose all the telemarketers and other unwanted impersonal calls that I seemed to receive multiple times a day. Right?
You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
Turns out, my phone number had once been owned by someone named Rosie. Rosie, if you’re out there, thanks. True, I’m no longer getting most of my junk calls. Now I’m getting yours.
I’ve had a couple of calls for her from real people. I don’t know what their relationship with her was, but they didn’t seem to believe that I was now the proud owner of her former phone number.
One guy called back several times. But it seems like all the legit callers have glommed onto the fact that I’m not actually Rosie, and that I wasn’t just answering her phone because they always called while she was in the shower.
That still leaves me with the robot calls and the texts.
Rosie gets a lot of texts.
Weight loss ads, job search ads, people telling Rosie they want to send her thousands of dollars for no doubt legitimate reasons.
Good news, though.
While writing this column, I noticed that one of the texts mentioned a potential place of employment for Rosie, and I called them. Sure enough, she works there.
Not sure it will do any good, but the guy said he’d mention it to her and see whether she could let any of these callers know her number has changed.
Wish me luck.
Roger Cline is a staff writer for The Snyder News. Comments on this article can be made to roger@snyderdailynews.com