For anyone needing to use their personal cell for work, why don't you try using a Google Voice number? You can have it forwarded to your phone, and if you call using the app it will show up on caller ID as the Voice number and not your actual cell number.

That ship has sailed.

I thought about doing that, Maria, but not hard enough to actually do it. People only have my number if I give it to them or I call them, which seems manageable?

Yeah, if a lot of people and/or strangers needed to call me, that would be a different story.

shrift, that's outrageous. I'm sorry, and I hope you can get it sorted with a minimum of distress.

In re cell phones: anyone who really needs to talk to me calls my landline, because they know my phone is dead in my purse more than half the time.

In normal times, I'll pick up most calls on the landline, even if I don't recognize the number, because I always allow for the chance that it could be one of the kids calling on a friend's phone.

anyone who really needs to talk to me calls my landline

Landline solidarity! Although I still don't answer it unless I recognize the number.

It's been...more than a decade since I've had a landline. I don't think we had one in Pasadena, which means it would have been my apartment in Burbank where I last had one.

I kept mine because my parents wouldn't call my cell phone. They're starting to get better about that. They even text now.

Not exactly, but similar. Last night I spoke to mom and sis in Louisville about having gas and charged phones and a go bag ready in case they should need to leave quickly. And I've talked to dad and step mom in San Francisco similarly re: the fires. And while I've made similar preparations during hurricanes and blizzards it's occurring to me that some cash, a few days of meds, etc in one place might be wise.

I'd been planning to drive out to NJ for Thanksgiving and then stay until maybe New Years, but my mom now wants me to consider driving there before the election, just in case there's civil unrest.

I'd been planning to drive out to NJ for Thanksgiving and then stay until maybe New Years, but my mom now wants me to consider driving there before the election, just in case there's civil unrest.

My first reaction was to say "Not in *your* neighborhood!" but this fucking year has blown every expectation I have of what "normal" is out of the water. I still feel like your neighborhood will be fine, but at this point I also feel like there's nothing wrong with exercising caution, either.

t edit I'm also not super worried about Northside, but then again, my expectation of "normal" is really fucked up at this point.

My first reaction was to say "Not in *your* neighborhood!" but this fucking year has blown every expectation I have of what "normal" is out of the water. I still feel like your neighborhood will be fine, but at this point I also feel like there's nothing wrong with exercising caution, either.

Yeah, I'm more worried about all those parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania that I'd have to drive through on the way to NJ for Thanksgiving.