IN TODAY’S world, reaching out to touch someone has never been easier.

We live in the age of cell phones, Skipe and Facebook.

If someone wants to contact another person, there is a way to do it.

In today’s world the adage you can run but you can’t hide has more than just a slight ring of truth to it.

In my house, we’re low-tech. We have a cordless telephone in the family room, an old-fashioned corded telephone in the downstairs laundry room, a computer in the office and five cell phones between the six of us.

On the surface, we’re pretty well connected.

But looks can be deceiving.

The Grahams have spent the last several weeks living like – as a co-worker put it – virtual members of the Amish community as far as our tele-communication abilities are concerned.

The trouble began years ago when one of the cordless phones we purchased conked out. My husband and I weren’t concerned. The phones were not expensive and the dead unit was the one that sat in our bedroom. The one in the family room was in perfect working order – no big deal.

Then, weeks ago, that unit went on the fritz. Again, my husband and I really weren’t concerned. The phone still rang and we could tolerate the cutting in and out it seemed to be doing. Our motto of “Use it until it breaks for good” was in full force.

While some may consider this policy of not buying something until it is really broken as being “green,” it is really our policy because we hate to shop so we don’t buy a new anything until the old one is totally destroyed.

We lived with the annoying telephone problems until the unit was pronounced dead. The telephone would ring and we’d have to run downstairs to the laundry room to answer it.

The fact that we needed a new phone was put on the “when we get around to it list.”

We weren’t worried. We could answer the telephone downstairs. People could still reach us but it was then that we remembered we couldn’t reach anyone UNLESS?they called us.

You see, the telephone – cord and all – we were relying on was not actually in proper working order. No one could dial out on it.

This also didn’t worry us much because, as I said, there were five cell phones in the house plus we loved getting all the exercise from running up and down the stairs answering calls from telemarketers.

Phone calls and leg muscle – what more could you want!

But, the worry wart part of my personality started working overtime and I finally convinced myself there would be some sort of emergency at the house when all five people with cell phones weren’t home and chaos, death and destruction would ensue.

These thoughts were enough to push my husband and I into getting new telephones.

We went to the local mart and picked what we were sure a couple of handsets that would serve just fine.

OK, there is no answering machine with these beauties so let this serve as a notice to friends and family.

If you call and no one answers. it means we’re not home. We have no caller ID so we’re not avoiding you.

Call back later!

After charging them up for hours, we were ready to receive calls and guess what? No one had the decency to call us for an entire day!

The nerve of some people!

As an added bonus, I even sprang for the $6 model to replace the poor laundry room telephone so people would be able to dial out if the electricity went out.

Hey, nothing’s too good for my family!

I told my youngest son he was the favorite. We made his brothers and sister live in the house where the basement phone was one step away from being useless. But for him, a $6 telephone he could call out on!

Yeah, we’re super good parents!

Now, we’ll see about moving “get Neal a new chair for the dining room table” up on the priority list. I need the chair he has been sitting on for the past two years to go back out on the deck!

His need to eat while seated is ruining the aesthetics of my outdoor decor!

Graham can be reached at tgraham@timesleaderonline.com.