Texting

Uncle Marcel had a post the other day about excessive texting. The question was raised (I think in comments) if texting was really needed. We just heard yesterday that Aunt Monica was in the hospital and it brought back a flood of memories, one of which was about texting.

I never texted so much in all my life as when mom was in the hospital. We were all keeping such crazy hours and while it was important to remind one sister or another to bring my red sweater back to the hospital when she came, it certainly was not worth a phone call which might wake them up after just falling asleep. In normal-world if you did not want to be woken up by a phone call you could simply turn off your phone. But in hospital-world you NEVER turn your phone off. EVER. You can also text multiple phones with the same message. So sending out a "the doctor wants to meet us all at noon" text to everyone is waaaaaay shorter than calling each person. Especially since saying such a message out loud is very hard with a large lump in your throat. So we texted, a lot. Certainly not, the 6000 messages per month that some teenagers are averaging, but a lot for an old fogey like me.

I still use texting sporadically. I think I mentioned in Uncle Marcel's post that I sent Jonathan his first text message a few months ago. We were all in Chicago and I, as usual, woke up early so I texted Jonathan's phone asking if they were up and ready for breakfast. If I had called them on their cell phone I certainly would have woken Lyle up and I may have woken them up, too. But with a text I could tell them I was up and if they were up too, they could tell me where they were and I could meet them. All without waking anyone up.

Lyle and I both have full email access on our phones so we use that more often than not. So, if I need him to pick up milk but I know he is in the middle of teaching a class (hence I can't call) I can send him an email knowing that he will get it before he comes home. Before we had email access this is what I texted most.

I sent Krista an email about Aunt Monica, but she might not have email access. Maybe I will send her a text later. It is non-intrusive and it will just let them know we are thinking of them.