Variations on a time
Listening to Mel And Floyd on WORT-FM today, and something they said reminded me about the time I was forced to call customer service, and wait on hold while I listened to the on-hold music. I don’t know if it’s still called elevator music, but that’s what we used to call it. Muzak Is what I think it is called.
So my wife and I had traveled to the finger lakes region of New York for a wedding. Of course we booked a sleeper accommodation on an Amtrak train, my preferred way to travel.
When it came time to return home, I received a message from Amtrak saying that a derailment had occurred near Sandusky, OH. and our ticket home was cancelled. Now I had to get busy finding us a way home.
I got on the phone to an airline, and of course was placed on hold. The Muzak started, and I knew I was lost to the ether. I put the phone on speaker, so I wouldn’t have to hold it next to my ear, and settled in to wait.
After about 15 min I decided to try and eat up some of the wait time by playing along with the online music. I borrowed a guitar from the collection of instruments on my stepsons wall and started playing along. Didn’t take long to learn the song since it repeated every minute. I was starting to enjoy the exercise, until I got so good at imitating the song, I started to do improvisation with the melody to spice up the wait. I was well on my way to variations on the theme, when wouldn’t you know it, the customer service agent came on the line and ruined my practice session.
Customer Service. Can’t live with them, can’t do variations without them.
Always a pun to fit the occasion!!
I asked a client recently if she would like to listen to some music during her appointment. She said yes and asked if I had "elevator music"? I wasn't sure that was even a genre. I asked her to clarify and what she was referring to was light jazz. Found it!