I had an odd phone call yesterday morning. The phone rang at 6:45 AM; it was a man calling from Mississippi who is coming to Alaska for sightseeing and salmon fishing next year and wanted some advice on what charter company would be best to contract with.

Eventually it developed that he was going into the Anchorage area and then on into the Brooks Range. (I should have asked him where he would be if he drove 600 miles from his home in Mississippi.*G* Alaska is a big state.)

Before I discovered he was not coming to southeastern Alaska I did mildly suggest that he call the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau and gave him the number but cautioned, But don't call yet. It is only 7 o'clock here.

He said, unabashed, I think I thought you would have 24-hour staff. (This is a small house museum and I am the caretaker/docent)

Then he got to talking about Katrina. He noted that everyone talks about the damage it caused in New Orleans but, he said, the damage there was nothing compared with what it did on the Mississippi Gulf coast (He lives in northern Miss.) He credits Mississippi's governor with containing the disaster with no greater loss of life than it got. Then he got to comparing the local governments of Lousiana and Mississippi.

Suddenly, in mid-sentence, the call was disconnected but no dial tone came on for at least a minute. (No breathing sounds, either. *G*)

What keeps a dial tone from coming on when a call is disconnected?

Oh- it just occurred to me - someone could have hit the Mute button. Is there absolutely no sound when Mute is pushed?

Oh, well, it got me out of bed and my day started.