We have no phone

at present. 
Well, we have no "land" line.
Phones in this household are a complex issue. The Senior Cat has a mobile phone.  I have a mobile phone - sort of. We also have a phone which runs through the VOIP system.
We have the latter because the Senior Cat finds that easy to use. He refers to it as "the land line". He still thinks of it as being like the old copper network. It works the same way in that he can make a call by dialling in a number - at least, by pressing the keys. He is happiest doing that. 
Most of his friends seem to be happy doing that too. 
Let's face it. It's an age related issue as much as anything else. 
When the Senior Cat was a mere kitten by no means everyone even had a phone. People wrote letters or walked around to see someone who lived close enough. Now they text or phone or get in the car.
A phone call  when the Senior Cat was young was made with some thought. It wasn't a casual thing. Anything outside the immediate area was a "long-distance" call and charged in units of three minutes.
Where I was born my parents had no phone. There was nothing available.  The Senior Cat and two other staff could see out the windows of their classrooms up the hill to where our house was. When my arrival was imminent my parents arranged that my mother would hang a sheet out of the front window and my father had permission to drop everything and rush up the hill to take her to hospital. A phone would have made things much easier. What is more it would have gone through a manual exchange and the person in the post office part of the local general store would have informed the hospital as well as the Senior Cat. As it was I arrived late and school holidays had begun. 
But, as a kitten, I knew about manual exchanges. We went off to the  bush again when I was mid-way through primary school. We went to a tiny place where everyone knew everyone - and everyone's business.  
We didn't have a household phone but there was one at the school - in the classroom the Senior Cat taught us in. It would sometimes ring in the middle of a lesson.  We would sit still and quiet while the Senior Cat answered it.  The local postmaster - who ran yet another general store as well - would only call in lesson time if it was urgent or long distance. At other times he would take messages and then pass them on.
We went to other places with manual exchanges too - manual exchanges and "party" lines where more than one family had to use the same line. You couldn't keep much secret and you never said anything you wanted to be kept confidential. The Education Office staff sometimes had to be reminded of that. The Senior Cat was acutely aware of it. My brother and I were permitted to answer the phone if it rang late in the afternoon and we were still in the classroom after school was out but we were under very strict instructions about how to do it. 
Now everyone seems to be connected all the time. I have been avoiding the mobile phone issue. I hate the idea. I have a pre-dinosaur model which only gets turned on if I am out. Only Middle Cat and the Senior Cat have my number. It has been there only for emergencies.
Now it seems that I need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of always being available to everyone because the "land line" hasn't been working. It will probably be available after someone comes to look at things this morning. The house has been quiet without any calls coming in. 
I know that access to a phone is a safety issue now - but there is something to be said for the quiet of no phone calls.