I'll Be So Glad When This is Over.....

I imagine every one of us has been bombarded with campaign ads...to the point where you almost feel like screaming...enough already! One of my personal pet peeves is the dreaded recorded announcement we are subjected to over our home phones. True, you can hang up the phone as soon as you discover what it is and not have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings.....but what if you're at work and these announcements clog up your answering machine. Twice now my machine has been filled to capacity with these unwanted announcements so that if a personal message I really wanted to receive would never come through. Personally, I don't think that this is fair. I can't believe that my unlisted number has made its way to SO MANY people.

We are subjected to filled snail-mailboxes and so many TV campaign ads that you just about know them all by heart. I have even gotten a few emails, but thankfully, not too many.

Amidst all this madness, one simply has to look for some humor. So far, the pickings have been rather slim until Friday night. My daughter called me and was really tickled. She told me that she had just received a recorded campaign call from a person who is running for re-election in our township. The name is well-known to us and is going to get our votes. My daughter went on to tell me that if I received this particular call, to listen to it and not to hang up....that an embarrassing mistake had been made.

Well, it wasn't more than 20 minutes later and I received the call. The person started out with "Hi, this is _________ and I'm running for re-election as your Township _________." It went on to cite all the things this person stood for and has done and also would like to do in the next four years. Then the voice faltered and after a few ahs and ahms.....and the sound of paper being rustled....the voice mumbled something and then said "damnit" and then another voice is heard saying something about didn't you have that written down and then the answer is no and more shuffling of papers and conversation back and forth and then the recording stops.

Oh yes I know....I shouldn't laugh at other people's embarrassing mistakes, but after so many of these irritating calls from so many different people, I was grasping at anything to make me feel better or at least make me smile and I was rewarded. Wow....this person's campaign manager is in some deep trouble I would suspect! I like this person and so I looked up the phone number in the phone book and called them at home and left a message on their answering machine, advising them of the wrong recorded message going out to probably thousands of homes. I ended the message with..."I voted for you, I think you're doing a great job....but you might want to pull this recorded announcement".

I know I'm not the only one who will be soooo glad when this election is over. And no matter who wins, there will be about half the country who is not happy. That, in itself, is going to be a difficult situation.