What's The First Thing You Think When Your Phone Rings?

Okay, so the car-color question worked out okay. A few people who I was hoping would post a comment didn't (I'm looking at you, Grace and Val) but you're always welcome to go back and add one whenever. And hey, if you don't have any particular feeling one way or another about the exterior finish of your auto (though I'd argue that indifference counts as a feeling), feel free to voice your opinions on the color of your house, or dog, or phone instead.

My lawnmower, for instance, is this sweet industrial shade of orange, and I like it a lot. It actually engenders a sense of trust, mechanically speaking, because I look at the thing as almost a piece of construction equipment - it's that kind of orange. And everybody knows construction equipment never breaks.

My dog is golden brown, and he's awesome.

Cell Phone: navy blue with some silver. Decent. The phone I really like, though, is the old rotary-dial phone I have at home. It's black with a light mist of white paint particles where someone must have sprayed a room without removing the small articles therein, and it weighs about seventeen pounds. It came from my grandmother's house.

*****

On to the next question: speaking of (and into) phones, what's the first thought that goes through your mind when you hear yours ringing? If it's my cell phone, my reaction is almost exactly the same as if I'd heard a smoke alarm: I bolt upright with a look of panic and start fishing around in my pockets. Part of the problem is that I keep my phone in my pocket, and often miss calls because I didn't hear it ringing, so anytime I do hear it, I wonder how long it's been going off. Another part of the problem is that the buttons to turn down the volume on the ringer are on the side of the phone, where they can easily be bumped by other objects in one's pocket, especially while one is operating a motorcycle.

The third part of the problem is that my phone can accept mp3 ringtones, and I have used this capability to download a snippet from an old Ice Cube song, featuring a stompy-sounding drumbeat and crashing cymbals and a baritone African-American booming, "STALKING... walking in my big black boots," so that issues from my pants whenever there's an incoming call.

I think we can all agree this would be offputting to most anyone.

Your turn!