Honest, Mom, I Tried To Call

Yesterday I, like any good son picked up the phone to call my mother. There was some guilt involved since she called Sunday and it was then Thursday. My mother is in her eighties and relatively healthy and absolutely active. She has been involved with Eastern Star Order for many years, among other things, as organist for their meetings. She’ll be at three or four meetings a week. And then there’s the hair and the nails once a week. So Mom does all right and hopefully lives many more years to continue sage advice to her only son.

The phone said back, “Your long distance has temporarily discontinued”. Panic! LOML is in Raleigh and will be frantic if I fail to call at eight. Not to mention that I couldn’t call Mom and who knows what “temporarily” means and it’s Christmas and there must be the accompanying sentiments to distant family.
So, what if there’s no local number for Sprint? It’s a good thing I have unlimited long distance because almost all calls require it. But that, I found out later, was the problem. There appears to be no local number for AOL.
I had received a letter several weeks ago from Sprint saying my long distance plan did not allow for other then conversational use. For some reason still unknown to me, their “unlimited” long distance plan is, well, limited. Anyway I had called AOL and explained my problem to a polite chap named Peter in Bombay or somewhere in that vicinity. He hooked me up with another number to dial. Fine, I thought...not fine. Peter, bless his American-job-takin' self, had replaced one bad number with another and now the phone company was taking action.

I found the local number which put me in contact with a very helpful lady in eastern North Carolina about two hundred some miles away. Now understand I’m in southwest Virginia and this is a local call and Stuart 16 miles down the J.E. B. Stuart Highway is long distance. She explained I could either find another number for AOL or pay 7 cents a minute. She did try to find a local number, it seems Sprint has not become sophisticated enough to allow such. Only after my promising to not abuse my “unlimited” long distance was it restored. I was able to call the wife in Raleigh at eight and relate the story. I still haven’t called my mother.

(fast forward to today)

Up and on the phone to Sprint. After all I had been 20 hours with out the internet and who knows what's happened in the world of Blog. I had pretty much decided that I must say adios to AOL and find another ISP. When I mentioned this to Kathy at Sprint she recommended Earthlink which seems to be connected to Sprint somehow. It's absolutely amazing to me how these corporations are so interconnected. So at this point I've added Earthlink and when the software arrives I'll download and send AOL packing.

I did have a long conversation with Mom who's now added Tuesday lunch with her physical therapy group to her schedule.