Rocketman

We've all done it. You pick up the phone and you hear the delay and the person on the line is asking for you and you know that they are a telemarketer.

When I pick up the phone and they ask for me I tell them that Kurt is not here right now, I 'm his brother, can I take a message? And when they ask what time will Kurt be back I tell them that Kurt isn't scheduled to come back for six more months. And they say, Oh is he in a foreign country? And I tell them, No Kurt is an astronaut on the international space station and so I can't get your message to him right away but give me your phone number and I'll have him call you.

They get excited and tell me that they'll call back in six months. Sometimes when they call me I apologize for not returning their call because I am an astronaut and I was on the international space station and NASA won't allow certain phone calls on the data stream to the capsule.

If you would like to try this, you could tell people that you are the Captain of a Navy submarine and you're under the waves for six months at a time, but when I get back from my next mission under the polar ice cap, I would love for you to shampoo my rug.

Kurt