Murphy's Law as applied to the cellular age

Just a quick observation:

It used to be, that if you had to reach a person by phone – Murphy's Law would merely arrange that the person is unavailable at whatever moment you chose to call. It was the one and only rule of important phone calls – they end with a machine telling you "Blah, blah blah, I'll call you back." (Shorthanded below as BBBICYB).

With the advent of cellular phones, the playful paw of fortune has many new ways to screw with you.

As luck would have it, I have explored most of them over the past few days. We're trying to find a place to live between the time when we have to leave the house we just sold and when we move into whatever house we eventually find.

If we find a place.

Here's just a sampling - I call and leave a message, and the person calls me back when:

• I am in a cellular dead spot.
  
  
  • "Mr… uds…bordup…rental…avail… [dial tone]"
  • *Return call*
  • BBBICYB
• I am in a business meeting.
  
  
  • [Ring]
  • *hit 'forward to VM' *
  • *Get voicemail*
  • *Return call*
  • BBBICYB
  
  
• I have my cell in a pants pocket while driving:
  
  • [Ring]
  • *contort*
  • *swerve*
  • [Ring]
  • *pull over*
  • *contort*
  • *hit 'forward to VM' by accident*
  • *Get voicemail*
  • *Return call*
  • BBBICYB
  
  
• I am parked on the side of a busy road, with my infant daughter in one arm
  
  • "Hello?"
  • "Hi this is-"
  • [Deafening roar of passing truck]
  • "-today?"
  • "I'm sorry, could you repea-"
  • [Screaming baby]
  • "-time hearing-"
  • [Passing car without muffler]
  • *Nearly drop baby*
  • "Damnit!"
  • [Upside-down screaming baby]
  • "Did I get you at a bad-"
  • *Drop phone*
  • *Put baby in car seat*
  • *Look for phone under car*
  • *Pick up phone.*
  • "-so I'll call you back."
  • "Okay"
  • [Dial tone]
  • *Resume life, restore order*
  • *Return call*
  • BBBICYB

Twice now, I've experienced Murphy's best attempt at irony:

I’m at work and make the initial call and "blah, blah blah, I'll call you back." I wait, at my comfortable desk, with perfect cell reception during a day when I have no meeting scheduled.

Later in the day I experience - let's just call it "severe gastro-intestinal distress" – and end up camped out in a bathroom stall. Murphy is a true bastard because the extended duration of my stay gives me time to contemplate how each passing moment would be a really bad time for -

[Ring]

Now – Murphy's got his rule and I've got mine when it comes to calls in the bathroom: I don't care if it's God Almighty on the line, he's gettin' voicemail.

You wanna reach me in the bathroom-you'd better send a pillar of fire.

At this point, I would hope Murphy has played out his fiendish energies – but with three more callbacks pending, I'm not optimistic.

Late edit:

Just added a call-waiting scenario:

On the phone with my adorable son and [Boop, Boop] call waiting kicks in. Must get son off the phone in mid babble, so I can pick up.

Can't make it. Miss call. Ugh.