Roger That

I have a confession. I've been eavesdropping on total strangers conversations. I couldn't help it. It was mesmerizing.

 I'd just purchased a pair of 10 mile range walkie talkies for my sister's camping trip. But, she purchased her own. So last night I went through the instructions to figure out how they worked. I hit the scanner button and came across a bunch of guys talking on channel 18. And I listened.

It reminded me of a time when I was 4 and my sister was 5 and we were with the neighbor boys at their house playing. David, 6, had a CB walkie talkie and my sister started talking to all the truckers pretending she was a grown up. Looking back, they could probably tell she was a kid by her high squeaky voice. But in my mind it was forbidden and dangerous because at any moment I expected an adult to come in and find out what we were doing and yell at us.

This was just a bunch of guys talking about appropriate radio etiquette. "No, your call sign is only for announcing yourself at the end of a conversation. Some guys do it at the beginning and the end of a conversation, but I just think that's a waste of time." "So, if my family gets on the radio with me, do they use my call sign? or should they get their own?" and so on, and so on, and so on. It was really nothing that should be interesting, but like some people who get caught up in their front hallway monitors to see who goes in and out I was caught up wondering if these guys realized they were being listened to. And what would happen if I just started talking? Would they get mad?

 I hit a few buttons on my walkie talkie to see if it would make any noise and they would catch on but nothing happened and I didn't have the guts to actually say something. So I just listened. In a way it's like reading blogs isn't it? Your audience may be specific, but you open yourself to other people reading what you write. Anyone from anywhere.

I remember someone telling me as a child that I was too curious. Sometimes I wonder if that is a compliment or a condemnation. All I can say in response right now is, "Roger that."