the work Is Not hard, so I Guess something has To Make my Workday difficult

Blockhead was at my desk yesterday.

Grrrr....

Our supervisor wasn't here so he insisted that I cover her desk and he would keep mine. [big fat heavy sigh] Fine. I'm sure everyone in this office would prefer it if I, instead of Blockhead, sat at the front desk anyway. So, fine. Not only was our supervisor gone, but all of the professors were out of the office as well. Just me and Blockhead. Oh boy.

Now you have the setting. Grant me a moment more to explain the telephone system, and we'll launch into our story. The phones here are pretty interesting.

Oh, how to explain this as succinctly as possible?

Okay: my supervisor's phone, the one at the desk I was sitting at, will heretofore be known as My Phone (you can imagine this phone as being red, if it helps you visualize). The phone at the other desk, which is usually my desk, the desk that Blockhead was occupying yesterday, will be known as Blockhead's Phone (or the yellow phone).

Still with me? Remember to visualize. Are you visualizing?
(the colors don't really matter, I'm just trying to waste your brain space)

When calls are placed to My Phone, they are first routed through Blockhead's Phone. A pointless procedure but that's how they do it. It will ring once on Blockhead's Phone and then forward the call to My Phone, and then I can answer the call. If calls are placed directly to Blockhead's phone, the ringtone is very different.

That's how you know whether to answer it or let it go through to the other phone. You listen for the different ringtones.

Regardless of the ring, Blockhead tries to answer the phone every time.

Ready for the story? Okay.

Yesterday, a call was placed to My Phone. In accordance with the system I've just explained to you, the first ring was on Blockhead's Phone. Blockhead apparently lacks the psychic ability to listen for the ringtone, and so apparently thought the call was for him.

He tried to answer it. He got dead air because it was already on the second ring. In his desperate confusion, he pressed a button to retrieve the call from My Phone so he could answer it. (clearly this was not thought through, because if this tactic had worked he would have answered, then the caller would have asked for our supervisor (because that's who they called in the first place!) and not knowing what to do, he then would have transferred the call back to me anyway. pointless. pointless. pointless.) Unbeknownst to Blockhead, I had already picked up the receiver to answer the call.

Somewhere between me answering the phone and Blockhead pressing buttons that he doesn't understand, the call was lost.

Good job, Blockhead.

The caller tried again. Blockhead got all kinds of flustered. "It's ringin' again! It's ringin' again!"

Dude, I know. Calm down.

"Now it's on your phone! Your phone is ringin'! Your phone is ringin' NOW!"

Oh my gosh, we are not seriously doing this. You are a grown man. Calm down.

I answered the phone. Blockhead was watching me from the other desk, wide-eyed and nervous. He had apparently worked up quite a sweat.

It was one of the professors we work with who happened to be out of the office at that moment. "What did you hang up on me for?"

Thank you, Blockhead. Thank you for, once again, ensuring that I would be the only witness to your abounding incompetence.