When I came home today, there was an odd little package on our porch. It was a knotted heavy white bag. I looked at it for a moment and then simply sighed. I knew exactly what it was.
I suppose I should be happy to get a newly updated phone book. All sorts of new information would now be just at the tips of my fingers. I can’t help but feel that new phone books are a burden though. You see, I don’t really need a phone book. Nearly everything I want is at the tip of my fingers. It’s called the internet…
Still, there might be some small local spot that hasn’t managed to find it’s place on the Web. And you are supposed to keep phonebooks. (I think it’s in the Constitution) There’s even an expiration date on each phone book so you know how long to keep them for. Finding a place for a phone book isn’t really that big of a deal…until you realize just how many phone books I get.
We are very near the county line. As both counties want our business, they both deliver phone books to us…both the white pages and the yellow pages. Dex has decided they want to take over the world of phone books so they deliver phone books too. They even have a “small” phone book designed to fit in your glove box that they send out. Then the city that we almost live in (we aren’t officially in any city) brings us a phone book. At least that one is relatively small. (If you ever need a job I’m pretty sure there’s big future in phone book deliveries!)
Now do you understand my quandary? How am I supposed to decide which ones to keep? Do I get rid of Dex because they the newcomers? How about the Old Guard…do they still deserve a place? Then which county do I keep? I don’t want any phone book to feel rejected. Maybe…just maybe…this could be the year that I gently place all the freshly delivered phonebooks in the recycle bin along with the old ones. Well…it could happen!
In the meantime, just let me know if you need a number, I’ll get it for you just as soon las I get back online….
What a delima. Even here in my little town we get multiple phone books. Local, regional and names and numbers. I just stick with the local.
Yup. We have lots of phone books. We don’t know what to do with them. So we hide them and hope they just go away. And then when I need a phone number, I can never remember where they were.
Mine all end up in a pile like yours….And I really only use the phone book about once a year.
Well…I always just throw mine in my car and drop them off at the recycle hub. If I can’t find it online I generally just call 411. Otherwise I end up with ton of them just like you and I just don’t want to give up the precious space.
Yep, off to the recycling bin!! We keep the most local and most important one ’cause it’s got all the non-emergency numbers in it (just in case) and what to give on certain wedding anniversaries and a great metric to imperial measurement table. Otherwise, they are going, going, gone.
That’s quite a stack you have! Much bigger than mine. I only keep about 4. It’s funny, I’ve never thought about not keeping them, but how often do we ever use ‘em?
Holy crap. Where I live, we have this thing called the internet, so we don’t need phone books. You must be personally responsible for the deforestation of most of Saskatchewan.
Just visiting from Dorky Dad’s….
We get a ton of those, as well, and usually they end up in the recycle bin. Like many, we have access to the internet, and most of the look-ups online are fairly up-to-date, and if they’re not, there is always 411…BUT…I have found something even better. 1-800-free-411. It’s totally free….NICE! I have tested it and it really does work, nationwide!
Oh my word! They do get carried away with those books! I only keep one – the rest I recycle.
Wow! And I thought we got a lot of phone books. I’m the same though–I never seem to get around to taking them to the recycling place, so they pile up. I also rarely use them, too, opting for the internet.
Phone books??!! Oh yes, those big, bulky printed books that I have behind my headboard to keep it from wobbling. I haven’t used one of those books in YEARS to look up a phone number……hmmmm seems like they were called “yellow pages”…..I’ll type “yellowpages.com” into my browser and…..MAGIC!! I now have every phone directory, for every city in the USA, right at my fingertips! As for looking up a number on your cell, just send a text message to YP411, and instantly you’ll get a text giving you the number/address you asked for. Yep, all for FREE. Ain’t life grand?
our school recycles them….your might. It always makes me feel so guilty to throw them in the trash.
We have the EXAXT same pile. I just hang on to them for a while and then when the pile gets dangerously high I take the bottom 2/3 to the city recycle center – they take them for free. Yippee!