How Bad Are Things When the Crisis Hotline Calls You?

There is a crossed wire (or something like that for digital phone) in our phone system somewhere.

Last night Husband and I were watching the Florida State-Miami game and the phone rang. The Caller ID did not display a number, but we’ve been getting lots of political calls lately. I answered the phone and heard, “…press one for emergency response, press 2 for …”. How odd. I hung up the phone.

Twenty minutes later it happened again.

It was happening every 20 minutes or so last night, as if I had called them (which I did not) and clicked over to take another call and they never hung up. Why was the county calling me? What was Husband doing when I wasn’t at home???

So I pressed a number and was connected to the Crisis Hotline. How apropos. “Have I got a crisis for you, ” I deadpanned. I briefly explained the situation, telling the counselor that mine was not the type of crisis they specialized in, but if they’d please hang up on me – something they are trained NOT to do, my own little crisis might just be solved. The woman was slightly confused, but did as I asked. And the problem was solved…

…until 5:45 this morning, when it happened again. I was having a lovely dream involving things I cannot recall when the phone rang. Eyeing the clock as I reached for the phone, my sleep-muddled brain first registered alarm, and a fear that Something Terrible must have happened if I was getting a call so early. I was relieved but irritated to hear, “…press eight for non-emergency response…”

Again I pressed a # and asked them to hang up, and they did.

10 minutes later, another call. This time they said they were not having this problem with anyone else. So I called Comcast, who provides our digital voice service.

“Just let me reset your system, ” said the technician. I know they reset it only because there was no answer when a moment later I said, “Hello? Hello?”  I’d lost service in the middle of the call. Apparently he could not be bothered to say, “In a moment I’m going to reset the system. That will mean we will lose contact. That’s how you’ll know it is reset. This should take care of the problem, but if you have any questions please call back.”

Great! That was an easy fix. I snuggle back into the covers and…

Ten minutes later another call.

By this time some of the shine has rubbed off of my sunny disposition. And Husband? Not pleased. I once again called Comcast and they told me they’d “…open a ticket…”. Someone will contact me in one to two days. Greaaaaaaaaaaat.

We’ve only had one call since. And thank goodness. If they call me tomorrow at 5:45am I might need to call that Crisis Hotline back…

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