Long Distance

Here's a funny story to add to the archive of funny stories.....

We don't have long distance service on our phone. With cell phones, we weren't using it - so about a year ago, we discontinued the 'unlimited long distance' service for our home land-line phone. Saved us about $14 a month and we've never missed it. We make occasional calls to Stockton or Manteca that cost us a few cents - no big deal. It's been a win-win.

Until tonight.

I opened our monthly phone bill, expecting the usual $65/month (it's also high speed internet, voicemail box, etc.) to see a STUNNING $321 bill staring me in the face. Holy Crap!

It was easy to see it was long distance charges - but who in the world is making calls for that much money? And to where? And when?

Answers? It was H. Calling his new 'friend' (a young lady) in Livermore - a city 26 miles west, with a different area code. One of the calls was 255 minutes - starting at 10PM and ending over 4 hours later - it was $77. There were lots of other late night calls - hundreds and hundreds of minutes. Seems when we confiscated his cell phone, he used the land line and didn't realize those calls were long distance. We gave him a quick lesson in what those first three digits of a phone number mean - and how even within the same area code, it's still 'long distance' - calling another city is going to cost us $.

Thankfully, AT&T was more than accommodating. We went back to having 'long distance' coverage - and they reversed all the charges - and reassured us that the next bill will be reversed, too.

Thank goodness.....

J. is traveling to Oregon this weekend for a(nother) family funeral - and the sad part is, there have been others that he hasn't attended because it's so expensive. So imagine the shock and 'jolt' of that phone bill - and budgeting for round trip airfare to Oregon....all unexpected. Thankfully, he will be picked up by family and have a place to stay - so he won't need to spend money on lodging or meals or a car. Just airfare and parking at the airport. And being away for a weekend - which sucks 'cuz I absolutely, positively have to work this weekend - and I'm meeting a friend for breakfast in Livermore (ironic!!) on Saturday - so that's more time for H. to be home alone, unattended, racking up some other kind of 'surprise! Just keeping you on your toes, Mom!' item.

I'm heading out to the 2nd of 3 night time commitments this week. This one is social and 'fun', relatively speaking...but I had another social evening last night. Thursday is a special board meeting that will be long....

PS - and the worst part is (for H., anyway) - that he finally met this young lady in person (they were friends of friends and connected via My Space) last weekend - and it did not go well. So they're not seeing each other anymore - or never started actually seeing each other. There will most definitely be no additional calls subsequent to that meeting.

H. has angels on his shoulder.....for sure. Another 'miracle' to report in my next post.