990 Connecting With Home

That sucks. Can you have a neighbor run over when the line's busy and say, "Hey, your line has been tied up for hours and someone needs to get through"? That also means if Savannah is on the phone all night, she's not getting her homework done! The "Went to Barbados" would be a good zinger but of course you'd be the horrible one.

Call the operator and ask them to do an emergency breakthrough. It's a trick I learned in high school. Basically the operator will interrupt the phone call and tell the teen there is an emergency and to please hang up and clear the line.

That sucks. Barbados sounds good. Failing that why not send your father a general email explaining in a very general sense why you have not been calling (getting through) and that you would like to speak with them sometimes. If they whine about how Savannah 'needs' the phone then I'd seriously head for Barbados.

why not send them a letter, saying as this was the only way and the fastest way to get in touch