Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Isn't this the 21st century?

So I called my city's Water Department and I was sitting through one of those interminable automated menu systems. You know, Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed. Press 1 for blah, blah, blah. Anyway, while tapping my fingers, waiting to get to the menu selections, I hear If you have a rotary phone... . A rotary phone? Someone still has a rotary phone? Enough someones that the city felt the need to mention it in their recording? Who has a rotary phone still?!? Do they even make them anymore? Talk about backwards compatibility. My 5.5 year-old son doesn't even have a concept of a phone that you plug into a wall (we've cut the landline and gone all-cellular). To him all phones are called 'cell phones'. I don't think he even knows the iconic shape of a handset. He probably doesn't even know that the "ring" of a phone was called that because there were actuall bells that rung when a call came in.

<old-man-voice>Back in my day, we didn't have buttons, we spun a wheel to dial. You kids with your new-fangled buttons, you've got it easy. I've still got calluses from those wheels.</old-man-voice>

On a similar note, referencing the 21st century and all, where's my damn flying car? I was promised a flying car by the year 2000! I remember being in elementary school, calculating how old I would be in the year 2000 (26), and dreaming of never having to go to school again while driving my flying car.

Oh, well. It's not all bad. I've got a minivan.

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