Babies and Phones

When our new grandchild arrives this week, we will have had three new babies added to our immediate family in under a year! What an incredible blessing and either my wife or I have been able to be present in the area ( not in the room!!!) for all three. It is an exciting time in the life of our family. Dalia, Diana and.....who? We shall soon know!
Apparently all of it plus life is causing some stress in me though. How do I know, you ask? It has to do with phones. It began just last week. I have a new friend named George who was calling me for directions to a noon appointment just as I was getting in the car to leave the house. As I answered my state of the art, all bragging-rights-included Blackberry Storm I was perplexed to hear George lament, in a distinctive muffled tone, that he could barely hear me, but in his best English accent would soldier on to make himself understood. I was equally frustrated, trying to get in the car, find the key hole, answer George...why could I not hear him, why could he not hear me , when...oh, wait...what was this....ahhhhhhhh. Problem solved. Communication restored. How much better the phone works when it is held right side up.
But that happens to everyone, right? Not really worthy of any telling unless it is on one's one of 100 million blogs. But this next phone drone is a bit different.
We are staying in a motel close by the expectant parents. At night we are on standby to come back to the house if Mom has to leave to go to the hospital. Nature called in the middle of the night and I rose to assume the expected position when I noticed that the phone in the bathroom was blinking. Oh no! We had slept through the call to come back to the house! The blinking light indicated an urgent message! With one hand engaged ( remember the position part?) I reached with my other hand, quickly unlocked the phone from the wall, placed the receiver to my ear, heart racingly waiting to hear the "you have a message".....when I foggily recalled, in no particular order, that we were in an inexpensive motel that did not have a phone in the bathroom, that there was no tone coming into my ear much less a message, and that I was holding the hair dryer alongside my face...

I'll let you know about the new baby when he/ she arrives. I hope it happens in the middle of the day!