One, two, three, four…
You know how it goes:
Ring-Ring. One…
You don’t like calling people on the phone, and have just spent ages trying to pre-play the conversation in your head.
Ring-Ring. Two…
Anxiety is sloshing around.
Ring-Ring. Three…
It’s ok, people rarely pick up on three rings, unless they are sitting by the phone.
Ring-Ring. Four…
Ok, I admit it. I count the rings before people pick up the phone.
Ring-Ring. Five…
It’s partly to do with knowing when to put the phone down when the phone isn’t being answered.
Ring-Ring. Six…
It’s also to do with my love of patterns. I find myself counting involuntarily these days.
Ring-Ring. Seven…
Come on – where are they?
Ring-Ring. Eight…
Hmmm… Maybe they aren’t there. But eight rings isn’t all that long. (It’s actually around 24 seconds…)
Ring-Ring. Nine…
I can visualise them running towards the phone now.
Ring-Ring. Ten…
Pick it up! Oh no. They didn’t. Maybe they weren’t running after all…
Ring-Ring. Eleven…
Maybe this time! Oh – no.
Ring-Ring. Twelve.
Handset down.
I don’t know why I picked twelve rings to be the cut off point if I’m honest. If I really think about it, most people have picked up by half a dozen rings if they are there. But twelve it is, most of the time. If I’m phoning a utility or some other sort of service I’ll hold on for longer. But with people, I count to twelve and then put the handset down.
Do any of you have a hidden and slightly odd use of patterns like this one? I’d love to hear about it!
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2 Responses to “One, two, three, four…”
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DonkeyBuster on November 24th, 2009 DonkeyBuster(Quote)
I do 10 rings… but now it seems the phone service will only allow me 8 before informing the “the party you are trying to reach is not available”. How the H*** do they know?! Of course, most answering services/machines pick up on the 4th or 5th ring.
Why do people keep messing with my system? LOL
I do have patterns, I just can’t remember any others right now… I’ll pay attention and catch a few as they go by, and let you know.
Angel on January 6th, 2010 Angel(Quote)
You hang in there a lot longer than I do, I count to three and hang up really quick, unless I get a machine then I stammer with the played out conversation that I had going on in my head the hour or so before I picked up the phone to call.
It usually sounds something like this “Hi, it’s Angel “(giggle, giggle) um…sorry I missed you. Well um…(ha ha ha)give me a call. (stammer, hum) uuuhhh my number is da da da oh, wait is that my number, oh yes, da da da da da da da. Ok, talk to you later (ha ha ha) bye.” I don’t use the phone often.
I count everything but can’t seem to remember my phone number. Huh? But I do notice that I do a lot of things in threes. I seem to count in twos a lot. I know I do a lot of patterns but that is all I can think of right now.