Phone Books

Hi All!

I know, I know - 3 posts in one day is bordering on neurotic but I promise I have been away from the computer since my first posts.

I am actually getting ready to head to my sign language class. There are only three classes left and two of those are test sessions! What will I do without my class to go to? It is really the only place that I socialize with people - true most of them are young enough to be my children (If I started young!) but, it was getting out and talking to people! I am taking the class and the lab aides some Buckeyes. They are peanut butter and chocolate treats that I normally make around Christmas time. However, I wasn't in this class around Christmas - hence the appearance of them now. I only made a quarter of a recipe so I didn't tempt myself to eat more than one or two (or three - they are REALLY good!).

No, where was I . . . oh yes! I am getting ready to leave for class and I popped out to get the mail. Where I live we don't have mailboxes at each house. There are community mail boxes on each block where each house has its own little mailbox - sort of like the post office boxes but out on the street (well, sidewalk). So - there I trotted to get our daily dose of junk mail, address labels, and bills. When I opened the front door there it was. Another phone book.

I don't know about your city but, ever since we moved to the Dallas area, we have been bombarded by phone books! Yellow pages, white pages, community pages, pages which we haven't figured out yet. Books and books and books. I am not talking one or two or even three. I am talking in the double digits. Hubby valiantly tried to control the phone book population by weeding through our phone book cabinet (yes, an entire kitchen cabinet is dedicated to the things!) each time a new book arrives on our doorstep. Personally, I think we should just throw them all out! After all - how many times do we actually use phone books in this day and age anyway? It is much easier to hop onto the Internet and Google something than to figure out which of the multitude of phones books to look in!

How do phone book companies (are there such things?) make a profit from this? I know that our area is a big area with a LOT of businesses and stores and stuff but, come on! How many places can each of those businesses afford to advertise? How many innocent trees are being cut down in their prime to manufacture these tomes? Why are they distributed without being ordered or asked for? Wouldn't it make more sense to only hand the darn things out to people who want them and who will (maybe, possibly) use them?

Thank goodness our recycling service takes phone books.

Trisha