Wanted: dial tone

I've got no telephone. When I pick up a handset in my home, there is nothing. Straight up dead air. No dial tone, no anything. This is bothering me. Cox is not as bothered as I, as they are sending over someone to check it out tomorrow, and I called them yesterday.
"What's the big deal," you ask. "You have a cell phone. In fact, you say, why bother having a land line at all?"
It is at a juncture like this where my dependence on technology clashes with my preference for how things used to be. Yes, I have a cell phone. But here's my secret: I don't like talking on it. The connections are all fuzzy (nothing against Cingular, but against the imperfectness of cell towers in general); the phones themselves are small and therefore unwieldy to hold up to my ear; and people can clone them and listen in on your conversations (is that a real fear, or too much television?).
Sure, scoff if you want. Tell me how crazy I am, but you all know it, too. Nothing beats a real conversation on a real telephone. You just feel closer to the person on the other end (for good or bad), and don't run the risk of missing out on a whispered gossipy tidbit because the person talking to you is going through a tunnel or something like that. Of course, I do talk on my cell phone. It's a necessity. It is, though, not my first choice.
So I'm bothered -- in a freakish, technology-hating, insecure way -- that I don't have a real phone line in my house right now. I just know that I'm missing out on something important. I feel cut off from the world. I feel like a nomad of sorts, and out of my element. I feel like I should go check for a dial tone again.