A few days ago I went for a walk with the dog around our hamlet and back yard and took my camera with me. The light was nice, and I took a lot of close-ups of both cultivated and wild flowers. Here are some of them — peonies, roses, daisies, sage, bell flowers, various unidentified blooms, and fluff from a cottonwood tree.
Yesterday, I tilled up the vegetable garden plot one last time (I think). A light mist or rain was falling as I worked on it, but that was nice because there weren't any swarms of little insects in the air or buzzing in my face. Our high temperature yesterday was about 20ºC (68ºF) and it's not supposed to get as "hot" as that today. Yesterday I also picked another batch of Swiss chard leaves and cooked them when I came back inside. Les blettes won't quit.
And I finally just turned off the ringer on our téléphone fixe (land-line phone). I don't know how things work where you live, but here we are tired of the phone ringing and ringing all day long, because all the incoming calls are from marketers trying to sell us something. Yesterday we got at least 20 such calls, and probably as many as two dozen, over the course of the day. As far as I know, the only way to stop marketing calls from flooding in and driving you crazy is to silence the phone and ignore them. We just never answer the thing any more, unless we happen see on its little display screen the name of a friend that we recognize. So if you call, please leave a message. We'll get back to you. Or just send me an e-mail.
We do exactly the same with the telephone. Far more unwanted calls here than in the UK. However, we shouldn't be placed in a position where we don't answer for fear of yet another marketing call!
ReplyDeleteI agree. With the ringer turned off, my phones still ding when a call is terminated, so I do have a kind of notification that I might want to check and see who called. The phone also displays a red blinking light when there is supposedly a message waiting, but often when I pick it up and dial the number to hear the message I hear just "vous n'avez aucun nouveau message" — very annoying. Especially yesterday, when we had two dozen unsollicited marketing calls. That was a record, and the last straw.
DeleteIn England we are registered with the telephone preference service which stopped all unsolicited calls. I Googled 'France telephone preference service' and it came up with useful information directing you to Bloctel which apparently does the same thing free of charge. Hope this helps! Angela
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angela.
DeleteJust like Angela, I was going to suggest Bloctel. I registered in 2016 and very seldom do I have annoying calls. I'm going to renew my registration soon. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI went ahead and signed up for Bloctel call blocking. It can't make things worse (I hope).
DeleteI should have said it stopped all unsolicited marketing calls. Domestic calls are not affected. Angela
ReplyDeleteSorry to say that Bloctel is useless. We have been registered with them since it started, and got a couple of months relief, but it is as bad as ever now.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I had heard about BlocTel.
DeleteDo you think it might depends on your telephone company? I have been back for three weeks now and I got only one or two, at most, annoying calls. My carrier is Orange.
DeleteMy carrier is Orange as well. It's not that.
DeleteBut you don't have Bloctel, do you?
DeleteThe question is for Susan: is Orange your provider?
DeleteIn Louisiana, the Public Service Commission, established a "Do Not Call List" You place your number on it and somehow, not sure how it works, it blocks the telemarketers.
ReplyDeleteI hope the blocking thing works as well here as in LA.
DeleteWe have a similar thing here: the Don't call me register. It works quite well on the whole - we don't get many telemarketeers. I've registered my mobile phone number with them as well and hardly ever get these annoying calls. Good luck, Ken, I hope BlocTel is going to work for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, elgee.
DeleteWe don't have a land line. Used to be that solved the problem. But they now robo-call cell phones too.
ReplyDeleteIs there any kind of directory of cell phone numbers in the U.S. If not, how do telemarketers get your number? French cell phone numbers start with 06 or 07, so you know if a number is for a ligne fixe or a téléphone portable by the prefix. I don't think there's any published directory of cell phone numbers in France.
DeleteThere is no cell phone directory. I think they have machines call random numbers until they get one that rings through or answers then the call is transferred to a live person. With VOIP they also can make the calling area code that comes up the same as yours, so you think its a local number. Like Emm, we just don't answer anymore unless we know who it is.
DeleteI haven't had a land line in years. As Diogenes said, that helps, or helped, some, but now there are still robo calls. I don't answer the phone unless it's someone whose name or number I recognize, and most of the people I want to talk to are in the Contacts list. ::curmudgeonly grump::
ReplyDeleteAre you yourself curmudgeonly? You don't seem to be.
DeleteNot really, just joking.
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