Dring the three days, I caught myself dozens of times reaching for the phone and then last evening someone called me on my home phone, urgently needing telephone numbers she thought I might have; the numbers were unlisted in the telephone directory. The numbers she needed were stored in my cell phone. I told her that my cell phone was dead, but I would try to find the numbers she needed.
After hanging up, I started grumbling to Les, "WHY am I supposed to be the REPOSITORY for all knowledge in the world?"
Being sensible, he responded, "Just call her back and tell her you can't get it, instead of being in a dither, but, as usual, you want to be the rescuer."
After complimenting his use of the word "dither", I looked in three address books, called the operator, and left messages for several people I thought who might have the numbers, and I was able to locate all of the numbers except one. However, I remembered that the daughter of one of my tenants is married to the cousin of the ex-husband of one of the people with whom my friend needed to make contact.
I decided to give that circuitous route a try. The mother wasn't home; I spoke to the step-father; he gave me the cell phone number of his stepdaughter; I left a message; she returned my call; she had to go home to find the number. She returned my call with the number of the ex-husband. I thought, "I know they had an acrimonious break-up, so he might be irritated, but what the heck, it's worth a try." He answered and very obligingly gave me the cell phone number of the ex-wife.
All told, it took less than half an hour. Les, said, "Good job, Sherlock!" I called to give the number and she was very relieved.
Lessons learned:
1. Never be afraid to call anybody if it's to help someone else with a problem.
2. I just spent some time transferring my cell phone storage numbers onto the computer and also made a paper copy.
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