Dialing 805 first? Yes, it's annoying... but I won't whine about it — much

If I hear again that irritating, three-tone phone chime followed by a new Tweedledum that says I’m dimwitted for not dialing 805 before a local number, one that I’ve called for 45 years without that area code … well, I just won’t be responsible for where that phone might wind up.

Are you with me on this?

I understand that our 805 code is nearly out of seven-digit phone numbers, but not out of people who want one. While I do wonder why they couldn’t just develop some nifty eight-digit numbers, I assume there’s a plausible, technological reason why not. Pity.

Still, I think combining 820s with the 805s is the phone equivalent of mixing oil with water, trash with treasures, chocolate and kale, Hillary and Trump.

I’m one who has to practice for a month or so before I automatically remember to write the new year on a check or letter. So, just imagine what happens now when a weary, distracted or multi-tasking me has to make a quick phone call.

Right. No 805.

Some days, it’s hard enough to remember seven consecutive numbers, let alone 10 of them.

So, on a day when I’d heard Tweedledum more times than I’ll admit in public, you’ll forgive me for being grumpier than usual.

Even so, I refused to be rude to the innocent, unlike someone whose unpleasant behavior I observed that day.

A restaurant customer was loudly, insultingly nasty to an earnest young restaurant server who’d had the audacity to politely tell the customer that the entrée he’d ordered was no longer available.

The complainer was beyond impolite, even though the server had no control over the situation. She wasn’t the chef who under-anticipated the demand for a key ingredient or who burned a tray of them because he was overworked.

Mr. Nasty bellowed for a while, then stomped out of the restaurant, leaving the rest of us feeling slightly soiled by his awful attitude.

He was an Appalling American that day, and maybe a Testy Tourist, too.

Yes, the Central Coast visitor season is upon us. Restaurants are busy at peak times. Gas prices have soared. Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel is still closed due to a landslide. Long drives are tiring, inland temperatures are rising, and in some cases, so are tempers.

I get it. Things don’t always go as planned, either on vacation or a day full of errands, or a long day at work. And that can make some people really crabby.

But why, why, do they foist their frustrations onto the messengers who deliver the bad news?

Cranky clients who shout still won’t get what they want faster, cheaper, bigger or at all. And they could leave an innocent envoy upset or even at risk of losing a job.

Rude treatment of people who serve us doesn’t happen only in restaurants, oh no.

People like the Appalling American won’t get a classier room by berating an apologetic motel clerk when an upgrade isn’t available because the lodging is full.

Berating the Uber driver or cabdriver won’t get passengers where they’re going faster. Au contraire. Ever seen a cab going so slowly, it might as well be going backwards? The meter’s running, pal.

My mama taught me that I’m better than that. Even if the person I want to yell at IS the one at fault — the server spilled my tea, the motel clerk misread our reservation, the cab driver went the wrong way in a city he should know by heart — I was to always rise above it, be polite, smile and remember my manners, dammit.

We can’t afford to be Appalling Americans or Testy Tourists these days, folks, here or abroad. We have enough image problems already without raging offensiveness hammering the nail into our public-opinion coffin.

But back to my original whine about the mandatory 805. It reminds me of when 911 went live, and a woman in Goleta complained to the sheriff that there was no 11 on the phone.

I’m sure I’ll adapt eventually to our annoying new “dial-it-out” area-code requirement.

No, I won’t like it, but I promise I won’t yell at the operator … if I could ever get a real person on the line.

This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Dialing 805 first? Yes, it's annoying... but I won't whine about it — much."