Gimme The Beep!

It's bad enough that I have to listen to some people's rambling outgoing voice-mail messages -- or even those tedious voice menus some businesses have -- but recently I've had occasion to call the VA and try to stay awake during not only their menu options but their messages about what to do if you're feeling particulary suicidal today or if you have an emergency. It wouldn't be quite so terrible if....

If only one of the options was to press a button and get right to the part where I actually get to leave my own (extremely brief) message. It shouldn't be that hard to program into a system.

(I'll forego the usual "If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they....?" rant for the nonce.)

Studies have been done about how many hours we waste in a year waiting for traffic lights to change, or waiting in bank/grocery store/movie theater lines. I can't wait to see one on how much time we waste every year waiting for that elusive beep.