Page 2 The Ogden Valley News Volume I, Issue IX June 1999 WIRES (cont.) from page 1 The Ogden Valley News Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 745-2688 Fax: 745-0062 E-Mail: shannafrancis@worldnet.att.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 745-2879 Fax: 745-2879 Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The Ogden Valley News Guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or LESS. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The Ogden Valley News reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions Announcements Sought As a community service, The Ogden Valley News will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell and homecoming announcements free of charge. We invite residents to send their announcements to: THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS P O BOX 130 EDEN UT 84310 If you would like your submitted items returned, please send a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The Ogden Valley News, while respecting all property recieved, will take no responsibility for lost or misplaced items. Please remember to keep a copy for yourself. Invitation for Articles The staff of the Ogden Valley News welcomes the submission of articles by our readership. We invite you to submit local historical accounts or biographies, articles pertaining to contemporary issues, and/or other material that may be of interest to our readers. We also invite you to submit to the paper, or notify the staff, of local events, births, weddings, anniversaries, mission homecomings and farewells, and death announcements. Eagle Scout and other awards that have been earned by the reader, family members, neighbors or friends are also sought. While the staff of the Ogden Valley News invites the submittal of information and articles, we reserve the right to select which material will be considered for publication. All material, to be considered, must be submitted with the full name, address and telephone number of the person submitting the material. saying words they really didn’t appreciate having their children hear! Those four days have brought back “fond” memories from the days of party lines. If you are too young to know what a party line is, it is when more than one family in the community shares the same phone line. Party lines at times were fun, it was interesting to hear other people’s conversations. But, mostly, they were a nuisance. The past four days have also been a nuisance, yet interesting. When you think about what problems could have arisen from some of the conversations we’ve heard, it’s a bit frightening! A man picked up his phone, only to hear another man’s voice asking, “Who’s this . . .? Where is my wife?” Someone else, trying to call Virginia, heard an intimate conversation between two women talking about a man. Another heard an intimate conversation while trying to get on-line. A fax sent by someone’s attorney was never received—perhaps you were the one that received it! Someone else overheard a person telling another person what their bank account number and bank balance was. Even though we, as a family, had fun with this problem, it could have caused difficulty for others. I talked with a friend who thought it was only his phone that had “crossed wires,” and was ready to throw the phone out. I wonder if there was an increase in phone sales that week. If you did replace your phone, you may want to find the old one, give it another try, and take the new one back for a refund. I called my friend to talk to her about this article, but guess what, yes—I got the wrong number! But this time I recognized the voice that answered the phone, and realized that I couldn’t blame the phone company this time—I really had dialed the wrong number. I tried again, only to hear, “Mike’s Carpet!” This call went through to a business that didn’t even have the same prefix as we do in the Valley. On the third try, I was just cut off. On the fourth try, I finally made it through to my friend. Does any of this sound familiar? For a few days everyone seemed to think the problem was with their own phones, until they talked to other Valley residents and realized it was more common than they originally had thought. It was reported from four different sources that each had called the telephone repair service office, explaining what was going on in the Valley. But the telephone company, at first, didn’t seem to understand the extent of the problem. Each were told that they were the first to report such a problem, and that maybe it was their cordless phone or their cell phone that was causing their problems. I called the phone company on the fourth day. I got through the first time— a miracle. Then after going through today’s wonderful automated system, hitting all the right buttons and leaving two different numbers that the phone company could reach me on (ha, ha, good luck this week) the voice told me that a trouble ticket had been completed, and by June 7th at 5 p.m. the problem would be cleared up. Not satisfied, I called back, pressing the button for customer service. While on hold our call waiting let me know that someone was on the other line. I decided to ignore it because, as you know, it takes time and energy going through the automated system. I decided to let our voice mail pick up the incoming call. But to my surprise, the next thing I knew, my daughter was asking if I could come and pick her up from school. She loved it because she was able to reach me, but I wasn’t so happy because I lost my place on hold, and had to start all over again on the automated system. Finally I reached a real voice. I explained the problem, but was told that she could only look at my individual line, and it would be checked for the problem. I reassured her that it was a much bigger problem than just my own personal line, but was still told that there wasn’t anything she could do for me. After twenty minutes, I still had no answers. After I told her I was writing an article about the problem, I was given a different number to call. This proved to be fruitful. A man returned my call promptly. After I explained the situation, he said he would get back to me. An hour later a different person called and asked if we were experiencing static on our line. I laughed and assured him that it was voices, not static that was being experienced. He told me they had checked our lines, and everything was OK, and that it was probably a problem caused from our cordless phone. I told him that many people were experiencing this same problem, but like many other people who had called to report it, the response was the same, the phone company just was not getting the picture! He said many people have cordless phones, and that we could all be experiencing problems at the same time. I emphasized, “You don’t understand, I’m talking about a major problem here. I live in a community of about 2,500 families (this was only a guess) and everyone I have talked to is experiencing the same thing! I’m even writing an article about the problem.” Finally, understanding came. Indeed there was a widespread problem. After more research, I was told that the phone company was working on a problem from the central office. He said it would be cleared up that night. He apologized for not noticing that there was trouble from within the central office. I wondered why it took the phone company four days to figure it all out when they had received so many calls. I discovered that the administration of the phone system is set up by individual lines. The only thing that alerts the phone company of a major problem is the volume of calls and complaints that are received. I have to admit, I didn’t take the time to call for three days. I concluded that everyone else would call. US West provides efficient service to customers. I talked with Mike Frandsen the Utah spokesman for US West and he explained the situation. It is said that when bad things happen, you can always find something positive in it. I happen to believe this and, in these circumstances, our family definitely had many laughs and learned a lesson. We were reminded that we should always choose our words carefully because we never know who is listening. So, in the future, keep your wires and words straight . . . and clean. Annual Harvest Moon Balloon FestTM Slated For This Fall The fifth annual Harvest Moon Balloon FestTM will be held this year on August 27, 28 and 29 in the Eden Park. Planning for the Harvest Moon Balloon Fest is well under way! This year promises to be better than ever. Mark your calendars now. Thank you Ogden Valley for your support in the past four years. We look forward to seeing you again this year at the Eden Park! Watch the upcoming issues of the Ogden Valley News for more details. For information on booth rentals, please call: Bonnie Knobla (801) 745-3657 For general information, please call: Wendy Hill (801) 745-4510 Carol Guthrie (801) 745-3080 or Flint Guthrie (801) 745-3080 Corrections • An article on the front page of last month’s paper, Olympic Plans for New Eden Apartments, inadvertently stated, “On August 24, 1999 the Utah State Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality approved the petitioner’s proposed under ground trench septic system that, purportedly, is designed to accommodate 11,409 gallons of waste a day for the 24 units.” The sentence should have read, “On August 24, 1998 the Utah State Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality approved the petitioner’s proposed under ground trench septic system that, purportedly, is designed to accommodate 11,409 gallons of waste a day for the 28 units.” • In May’s birth announcements, parents of Dustin Kate Poulson were listed as Kimberly Smith Poulson and Travis Poulson. Dustin Kate Poulson is the daughter of Kimberly Smith Poulson and Dustin Poulson. • In the April issue of the Ogden Valley News, an article entitled Spring/ Summer Fashion Show Benefit - May 13th included a statement that read, “The YCC is located at 2261 Adams and is financed from private and public donations with no Federal Funding of any kind. This statement is incorrect. Please note that YCC receives 62 percent of its budget from private contributions and the remaining 38 percent from state and federal funding. The staff at the Ogden Valley News apologies for any misunderstandings that may have a arisen due to these published errors.