Please Hold Our Calls

 Tracey and I are purposefully trying to spend less time in front of our screens and more time walking around the house wondering what people do when they aren’t on the internet. If we’re not working on our computers we’re taking calls. There’s always something happening.

It’s going well too, our little ‘step away’ time. Although there has been one notable exception where our not answering messages instantly has caused a bit of stress.

Dad.

You there?

Dad?

Where are you?

Please be there.

These were the messages from Master23, who is in Perth at the moment, which were waiting for me on Facebook when I came inside from gardening.

And by gardening I mean I sat on the balcony drinking a beer and watching as the bloke from down the road, or as Tracey likes to refer to him, our staff, mowed my lawn. I got this guy in about a year ago because my mower broke down and I hadn’t taken it in to be fixed yet. At this point it’s looking less and less likely I ever will. If you take into account chiropractic and physio appointments, he’s cheaper to run that my 4 stroke by half.

Plus I’ve suddenly decided I like gardening.

I looked at my son’s message for a few seconds.

“This is odd,” I said to Tracey, who was just sitting down at her own computer after a spot of menu planning in the kitchen. By which I mean she was sampling the cheese while standing in front of the open fridge wondering what the hell we were going to have for dinner that didn’t involve one of us going to the store.

“He was only on the phone an hour ago talking to the kids,” said my wife. “Oh, look. I’ve got some too.”

Hi, Tracey.

Tracey?  

You there?

Where the hell are you guys? 

Tracey?

I sent back a message and waited for his response. It took seconds.

You might want to take the phone off Emily and hang it up. Or at least change the DVD.

I found Miss2 in the lounge room watching telly with the phone on her lap. As expected, Master23 was on the other end.

Apparently, from when she was handed the phone she’d refused to say anything except for when he asked her, “Are you going to talk to me?”

“No,” she’d said at this point, “I watching Dora.”

Yep, he’d been listening to Dora for nearly an hour.

After this outburst she’d gone into radio silence except for when she’d occasionally lift the receiver to her ear to listen to him begging her to hang up or give the phone to someone else.

“I could tell she was listening because she’d giggle at me,” he laughed.

So our efforts to step away from our computers and stretch our legs and minds has been going really well. We’re interacting with the kids a bit more and cooking and gardening. It’s all rather lovely and serene around here.

Especially when, thanks to Miss2, the phone doesn’t ring either.

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It really does make a difference  Thanks.

“Raising a family on little more than laughs”