Your mailbox is empty

Well, I figure it had to happen eventually. I called my work voicemail today, and it announced, "your mailbox is empty."

For most people, this isn't a big deal. However, for many years, I had the magic voicemail that appeared to be unaffected by the VMX system's automatic-purge function. As a result, I had voicemails in there that were quite old. Damn old, actually, some of them dating back to when I first took this job, back in 1994. The panorama of messages was interesting... old messages from Nancy from before we were married, then during our marriage, then the separation and divorce. Voicemails from Penny, and Mary, and Melody, and Heather.

All gone now.

I'd always meant to bring in a recorder and save those away, but now that I haven't, and now that they're gone, I guess I don't miss it all that much. I have no interest in hearing Nancy's voice again, nor Melody's, and Heather and I still talk in email or IM once in a while. Mary and I are still friends, and Penny is still out there somewhere. In a matter of weeks, Suzanne will be here, and then, really, who else's voicemails will matter?

My attitude toward personal history changes a little every time I wake up.