As I write this, I’m sitting in LAX listening to the crickets.
No, they haven’t installed an aquatic exhibit in my terminal (although that would be very California and a very cool way to pass the time).
The chirping is unfortunately manmade and courtesy of Nextel. All those darn walkie-talkie phones with the annoying, high-pitched ‘ba-da-beep’ before each incoming transmission — I want to crush them all in my pasty white girl paws.
Why do people feel compelled to use their phones in walkie-talkie mode? Does it save them money? Minutes? It seems like most cell phone companies today have stepped away from minute-by-minute packages. Aren’t most of us paying monthly usage fees now?
Do they think it makes them look cool? Here’s a review — it doesn’t. Do they think it sounds cool? That chirp every 10 seconds is tedious and repetitive…especially in a crowded airport terminal, where you also have to contend with a million loud conversations and recorded announcements about allowable liquids through security — and we’re already through security. But that’s another rant.
The Nextel chirp also totally freaks out my dog. He’s not with me in the airport tonight, but if he were, he’d be sitting on my head. To him, that noise is a natural predator.
And I’m really beginning to feel the same.
