Now That’s a Long Distance Phone Call!

I got a call a while ago on my cell phone that had been direct transferred from my main business line; having Caller ID I noticed the familiar “281” prefix as being local. There was a brief inquiry by the caller, “Is this Mr. Stern?” and I explained that yes, she had reached T. F. Stern, the locksmith. “Oh good, I just talked to Richard over at Lone Star Ford and he recommended you. I’m over in Afghanistan…”

“Lady…”, laughing out loud at the idea of running a service call to the other side of the world, “…my service call to Afghanistan would be very expensive. By the time I get on the first airplane it will bankrupt your account.” I was joking, right? This had to be the longest distance phone call for locksmith service I’d ever gotten.

I did get a phone call from one of my neighbors who was down in El Salvador on vacation visiting relatives. I had made a set of keys for his car and he knew that I kept good records and that all he needed was to furnish me the VIN for me to look up the key information on my computer’s data base, cut another set of keys and then FedEx those keys to him in El Salvador. That was pretty neat and I get a kick out of telling the story from time to time; Afghanistan, now that tops El Salvador by quite a bit.

“The truck is there in Houston, over on Kuykendahl in one of those storage facilities.”, the lady explained how she was on her cell phone calling so that I could get permission for her family to use the truck while she was serving in Afghanistan. I still have to wonder how she got her Houston based cell phone to place that call, does that fall under “roaming charges”? Her sister’s vehicle was going to be in the shop for repairs for an extended period and needed to get around.

“I understand you are able to program those fancy Ford Keys, is that correct? How much will that cost?” Maybe I should ask what form of currency I’d me getting paid with. I didn’t think they used currency over in Afghanistan yet.

“That will be two small pigs and a chicken.”, no, I didn’t say that; only a thought in the back of my twisted mind.

“Yes, I can do that for you. I’m so glad I won’t have to pack for the trip.” There was a mild silence as my humor sometimes takes a while to sink in. So, Afghanistan has got to be the longest distance phone call I ever got for a lock job. I talked to a friend of mine in Japan; but that was via an internet connection and it was just to say, “Hey how you doin’” I'd talked to my brother a few times over in different European countries, but that was on family stuff, not to do a lock job.

This is Monday; another interesting piece of unrelated data, I was doing a lock job at Munday Chevrolet when the call came in. …And in Los Angeles, California a woman was washing dishes in her kitchen while clear across in Atlanta, Georgia at the very same moment yet another woman was washing dishes in her kitchen; coincidence or is there something going down here?