8000 calls

8,000 (fruitless) calls, and going.

We should have thought about it, after all it is April 1 - April Fools day.
But, I also thought: What a lucky day! It is my birthday. Well, at least the
60th anniversary thereof.

Three of us Scout leaders got together, shortly before 8 am at a bank of
telephones. We checked our watches against time standard, and started dialing
1-305-664-4173 as the second hand swept towards the 12 denoting 8 am.

>From then on we punched the redial button following every busy signal. Other
than a couple of quick runs to the restroom as the coffee flushed through us
each of us were making 8 to 10 redials a minute. Five hundred busy signals an
hour per Scouter. It did not take us long to calculate that, for us, we had
substantially exceeded Sea Base*s documented record of people making hundreds
of calls to get through.

By 11:15 am the other two leaders had to peel off, and we must have had 5,000
disappointing busy signals by then with the occasional hope when the line rang
- only to be told by a computer that the circuits were busy.

We enlisted another leader to make calls from his office, and take up some of
the slack. And, and of course IUve been hitting that resail button as I type
this non-urban folklaw cautionary tale. Half an hour from now the Sea Base
telephones are unplugged until tomorrow and, if necessary, weUll start again in
the morning.

Next week we call Philmont.....

Time to think about Plan B.

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