From beyond the grave...

On Sunday last, during a rehearsal with my sister and her husband for our upcoming Celtic Christmas show, my brother-in-law let me know that cell phone numbers had been rearranged to make the best use of the plans and devices that were available, and that he now had my dad's old phone number. I noted this, but - as we were getting set up to rehearse - did nothing with this information.

Fast-forward to the next day, and I get a text from L saying that her battery has died, but that my sister is on her way to rescue her. God bless family. I chatted with her some while she waited on my sister to arrive, and

About 30 minutes or so later, I receive the text you see here. (Complete with the 'FUAutoCorrect'-style typo, but minus the mustache. That just seemed very much like a cooler option than a plain bar across the phone number...)

Yup. That's right. Nothing to see here, only my father texting me from beyond the grave!



At first, I was thinking "Well, that's awesome, but you're a bit late, old man! What with you providing celestially-inspired advice, how's about trying to do so before things happen? Like, y'know, 'Hey, L's car battery is going to die today - might want to get that replaced.' or 'Don't take 190 to work today - it's going to be packed for no apparent reason. Try 635 instead. If you can get on the road right at 7:03, I'll see what I can do to help out.'"

Then it occurred to me... they have cell phone service in the great beyond!! I wonder what reception is like. What phones are offered? Wait ... you've got Steve Jobs now - whatever phones are out there, the UI is going to be great. Are there artificial data caps like there are down here? Robes don't have pockets - where do you put the phone when you aren't talking on it?

Then recollection struck, and I made the mental leap between my father's phone number and my brother-in-law, who must have gone with his wife to rescue mine. Aaaaaaand, I promptly went into my contacts and swapped the number over.

Last night, when I shared this tale with the perpetrator of the above text, he told me it could have been worse. Apparently, his son had gotten up in the middle of the night and - so that he wouldn't alarm anyone - sent a text message to both of his parents saying "It's just me" before turning on any lights or making noise. He does this fairly frequently, so when my brother-in-law heard his wife's phone go off and saw the hall light come on, he just grabbed his phone and sent a text back that said "ok".

Yeah, my nephew hadn't updated his contacts, either. So in the middle of the night, he texts his dad on one number, and his grandpa responded to him.

I wonder if he thought about the robes thing, too...