Something to cellebrate

Do stories such as this give you a little shiver of dread?

If you're like most people you carry your cell phone practically everywhere. However, many Nextel customers were disconnected this morning as technical difficulties disrupted service.

Issues with a local tower created hours of service problems. One Terre Haute Nextel provider received hundreds of complaint calls because of the high number of phones lacking service.

Sure, it's one thing to drop a call now and then, but to be completely without service? To not be able to call or get a call no matter where you are? Unthinkable. Of all the things that have been introduced in my lifetime that we didn't know we needed until we had them, the cell phone is the one that became indispensable the quickest and has probably changed our daily lives the most. Even on days when I don't use my cell (and there still are some for me), I couldn't imagine not having it. It's hard to even remember how hard it used to be to keep in touch with each other in the old days, and how much more at risk we were from emergencies.