Scenic Hawaii.
Memorial Day chrysanthemums.
Recently, we took advantage of the $40 price at Costco and purchased a set of 4 telephones. It’s great! We installed the main phone next to the fax machine in the living room, two phones in the family room (one on David’s end table and one on mine), and the fourth telephone next to David’s side of the bed in the master bedroom.
These phones also have an intercom feature. David said he will use it to get me to fetch him a glass of water when he is in the bedroom. Oh, sure. Good thing he hasn’t figured out how to use the intercom. Lol.
With phones next to our elbow, our legs will soon atrophy from not having to race to the phone every time it rings.
Maybe, just maybe, we should buy 4 more phones for the kitchen, bathrooms, and the computer hutch. That will amount to 8 phones in a 1-story house. What do you think? Should we?
May 28, 2012 at 1:26 am |
I don’t know Gigi, maybe the exercise running after the phones was a good thing!
May 28, 2012 at 2:16 am |
That is a great price!
May 28, 2012 at 5:48 am |
Gigi, you are too funny. I need an intercom too. For now my loud mouth will suffice. Dianne
May 28, 2012 at 6:11 am |
What’s one phone more or less? It does seem a bit much to me, but I carry my cell phone with me everywhere, so I never need to walk to it.
May 28, 2012 at 7:42 am |
We have two land lines, one personal and one for business. Also, we each have a cell phone. At home we hardly use our cell phones, but when we travel or when we are in Seattle we use them constantly, especially for texting with our kids.. We recently added up what our expenses are for phone and cable, (internet only), plus Netflix download ahd internet at the condo. It’s about $230.00. per month. Seems like a lot, but a lot of it is business expense.
Staying connected when you live in a remote place and depend on good communication for your livelihood is costly!
May 28, 2012 at 7:53 am |
$243 for us includes:
1 landline
2 cellphones
Internet
Cable TV
May 28, 2012 at 7:46 am |
I think land lines are redundant – a thing of the past. Mobile phones/i phones/i pads etc are the in thing. You two should communicate on such devices
May 28, 2012 at 7:54 am |
Our FAX machine requires a landline phone. We rarely use our cellphones except for emergencies in the car.
May 28, 2012 at 8:09 am |
Till around 1998-99 fax machines/land lines were in vogue in India. Then suddenly the scene started changing. Now fax machines have become redundant . Offices use scanners and then send the scanned documents by e-mail. Plus there is a cell phone explosion. Calls on cell phones are cheap and almost everyone uses cell phones here.
May 28, 2012 at 10:07 am |
It’s easier and cheaper to put in cell phone towers than landline infrastructure, so for developing countries landlines are the way to go.
May 28, 2012 at 10:08 am
Ooops. Just the opposite! Cell phones are the way to go in developing countries!!!
May 28, 2012 at 8:10 am |
And, do you remember when we used to have to get up from the couch to change the channel on the TV?
Get a cell phone attached to your clothing before buying more phones.
Cheers, DrumMajor
May 28, 2012 at 8:26 am |
I hear ya. My daughters use cellphones constantly. However, I was so glad I had a landline when there was a power outage during the 2006 earthquake in Hawaii. Cellphones were dead, so we had to use the landline phone.
As for FAX machines, they seem easier to use whereas using a scanner and email is more cumbersome.
May 28, 2012 at 8:40 am |
I suggest that David rig the telephones so he can make general announcements over a P. A. system. You can begin the day just like Home Room in high school. Or, you could put all the phones on permanent loudspeaker. What fun! The imagination runs wild.
May 28, 2012 at 8:51 am |
haha. Well, finally, we both figured out how to use the intercom. You have to press INTERCOM, then SELECT. All the phones will ring. The other person picks up and you tell her to bring you breakfast in bed.
May 28, 2012 at 8:49 am |
We also haven’t gotten rid of our fax machines in favor of scanner/email because just as you said…it seems easier to use. I don’t want to have to turn on our computers just to receive a fax or send one. I guess if we were more proficient with data communication from an android or iphone (and willing to pay the monthly service fees) we could bypass our laptop and do it from a phone. Something to consider because with the fax we need to be home to receive, otherwise we could view it from our phone anywhere. We also still have Oceanic Cable and Hawaiian Tel…time to reconsider the whole package. But our monthly for these is very manageable: $91 (landline, internet, cable, cell)
L. from W.
May 28, 2012 at 8:53 am |
wow! $91 is really cheap!
May 28, 2012 at 9:28 am
We got the two phones package for about $40 awhile ago…now it is even cheaper lol Yes, $51 landline + internet, $17 cable, $23 cell. I really try to keep our monthly utility costs as low as I can, so we can afford our $549 Kaiser medical dues + high copayments w/ no RX or dental coverage. I’m always trying to pare our “other” expenses since I cannot control what happens to our medical costs, except to try to do the things that keep us healthy. Sadly, I suspect medical costs will continue to eat most of our retirement income.
L. from W.
May 28, 2012 at 9:48 am |
Best thing about landlines is that they never have to be recharged.
May 28, 2012 at 2:03 pm |
I have no room to talk. I have a tiny house and three phones. I have to use land lines for to get a cell signal, I have to drive 4 miles down the road. Price of rural living.
May 28, 2012 at 2:13 pm |
I think we have 3 phones here on 2 stories,…
May 28, 2012 at 11:34 pm |
We have a phone in our bedroom and Spud’s bedroom, and one in the lounge. The intercom system is great because it means I don’t have to shout over Spud’s music
May 29, 2012 at 8:46 am |
May 29, 2012 at 10:53 am |
Interesting to hear what all are doing with phone communication systems. I had to keep landline for my husband’s pacemaker checks, then retained it after he died, and will keep it in case of power outages, other potential problems. . Have another phone hooked into the line (no phone jacks in other rooms) with three handsets that allow me to set them up wherever I choose. Would have been really helpful when husband living and getting around difficult for him. Broadband provides internet and have wireless system setup so computing not stuck in one room. Fortunately, my northeast of L.A. locale receives excellent antenna TV so we’ve never had cable. Total cost for all is under $50.
Have a cell phone used mostly with friends and family, texting, but I haven’t twittered ($60 annual thru family setup.) Like to Skype on computer — free — including with Big Island bro. now that he’s able. I have a new gift 4-way printer, fax, copier, etc., but haven’t tried hooking it up yet — figured it would be complicated and would take me forever, plus concerned I’d mess up everything else.