Story of the Day 2/ 12/ 2013

The phone rang.
It was 4:43 PM.

It didn't used to be 4:43 PM. It used to be a quarter to 5, or 4:45, but then someone went and invented digital clocks and now telling the time in an excessively OCD manner has become normal. It has been at least 3 years since someone has told me it was a quarter to anything, when asked. At least.

I answered the phone.
There were three of us at home. but when it comes to answering the phone, usually, I am the only one who counts. This is not because they are lazy. In fact, there are numerous occasions when Aaron will run off eagerly to answer the phone, intoning, in his most mature voice, "Hello, this is the Margolis-Greenbaum household. How may I help you?"

This usually impresses people no end, until they realize he cannot hear what they say in response. This is because he is daef and struggles with most unfamiliar and even some familiar voices on the phone.
The reason that I am usually the only one to answer the phone is that he often doesn't wear his hearing aids in the house, and since Sarah is too deaf to use hearing aids, I am the only one who can hear the phone ringing, and therefore the only one who counts in terms of answering it.
So, off I ran and , at 4:43 Pm, picked it up, and answered, substantially less charmingly than my son, something along the line of "Hello?"

A woman, who sounded young- a generalization I make based on the fact that her voice was relatively high pitched and therefore hard for me to understand, asked, "May I please speak with Ah ah."
Okay, she did not really say that, but when you are hard of hearing, as I am , that is what you hear.

I was fairly sure that the breathing pattern was her saying "Sarah" and not "Aaron, but you cannot be sure based on breathing patterns alone, so I asked, " Do you want to speak with Aaron."
"I am calling to speak with Ayh ah/"
And I am pretty sure, now, from her response that she wants my daughter.
This tells me two things, the first one of which is that she has never met Sarah.
The second is that she is selling something. The question is what.

"May I ask who is calling?" I ask, innocently. Hey, I can do a good imitation on occasion.
" This is the United States Army."

I wasn't expecting that.

They must have gotten a list of students graduating and are calling around trying to get recruits for our all volunteer army.
I supposed I should be polite, in this situation. It isn't the same as if the credit card something or another is trying to talk her into transferring her balance to their card for the introductory low interest rate of 1% for the first $100 and at $23.7% for everything above that.

I politely explain, " I realize that you must not know Sarah, because you called here to speak with her on the telephone. Sarah is profoundly deaf and can neither hear the phone nor speak on it."

There was a very long moment of silence.
Make that something like 2 and half minutes. I was starting to wonder if she had become disconnected. I mean, the phone, the phone had become disconnected.

" I will take her off our list."

One more career option eliminated.