Blocked calls and family makes this grandma smile

Mother’s Day is past but I’m still smiling. Everything we did was fun. The one problem was that only half of our family could come out to the farm. Rob and Russ were tied up and couldn’t make it.

I didn’t expect a picnic. Andy and Rebecca told me they would make chicken on the grill for my lunch because that was the food I selected. They also did brats—others chose those links.

As we were mucking around the kitchen, precooking the meats so they wouldn’t take forever on the grill, a small person entered our house. It was our grandson Wyatt. Since he’s too young to drive, after hugging him, I went searching for the rest of the family. Outside I found Rachel, Dave, Eli, and Arianna. SURPRISE!

Actually, it wasn’t planned as a surprise, but since they remembered that day that they had forgotten to tell me they were coming they made it a surprise.

I don’t think I stopped smiling all day. My smiling started Saturday when the florist called to see if I was home for a delivery. They didn’t say what was on the way, but I had my suspicions that it was flowers. The basket was from Rob and family.

I had saved bubble wrap for some reason. That Sunday afternoon I found out why. The children had a ball popping all those bubbles. Then they drove on grandpa’s cart with their mom and dad and practiced target shooting with their BB gun.

Russ heard flowers were coming my way via two of his siblings so he sent a gift certificate. I used it to buy the best gadget ever.

I got a CPR Call Blocker V5000 for our landline phone.

Only recently did I realize that this mechanism was available. I just happened across it on the Internet and wondered if it really works. IT DOES!!!!

Like many of you, Bob and I are sick and tired of getting those life-disruptive calls at all hours of the day and evening. We used Caller ID to check if the call was legit, but even if we didn’t answer, the ringing still disturbed us.

Sometimes those unwanted calls even left voice mails. Our answering machine then told us how we were about to be arrested or killed—I’m not kidding about having my life threatened. Now that one really freaked me out. Oh, I knew they only wanted money, but it sure put my nerves on end.

The other day we hooked up our Call Blocker V5000, which was very easy to do (besides a landline, the phone has to have Caller ID). The directions said that over 5000 annoying numbers were already blocked, but that we could add more at the click of a button.

Those maddening Robocalls stopped immediately. No kidding! Our phone wasn’t even ringing. The house was so quiet I wondered if our phone was working.

I lifted the receiver. Yep, there was a dial tone. The phone worked, but only for real people, not those thieves who only want to scam us.

This quiet made me wonder what was happening to all the other calls that had been interrupting our lives. The Call Blocker box said that they were just cut off.

Many people have switched from land lines to cell phones. We can’t. Our land line is here for multiple reasons. One is because that’s how we get our Internet. Out in the country our options are a DSL phone connection or satellite. We went for DSL, the least expensive.

Anyway, I had to share the great news about our new gadget with you. It can be found at multiple Internet locations. I researched and found the best price at QVC.com. Get it for yourself or better yet get it for your grandparents. Be sure to hook it up for them just to be nice. They will love you for it and they will be smiling, too. I guarantee it.

Susan Manzke, Sunnybook Farm, N8646 Miller Rd, Seymour, WI 54165; sunnybook@aol.com.