At the end of last year, I looked at our cable bill ($164) and compared it to what they were offering new subscribers ($76) and decided we were being ripped off. So we discontinued it.

I know we installed Direct TV for television programming and I know we got Vonage for the phone because David needs to call Singapore periodically and it is way cheaper with Vonage.

And we got DSL service.

David was gone for a month in March. Just like it always happens when he is gone, our internet went down. I looked out the window and saw the AT&T; guy on the pole and figured he had done something to our service. Was our DSL through AT&T;? I thought it was.

Until I called them.

They had no record of us at all. They couldn’t find us with our landline number. They couldn’t find us with the email address (that I will admit I guessed at – but was correct). Finally, I gave them my social security number and they came up with a very old record that had a phone number on it that we haven’t had for at least four years. Okay, so maybe our DSL wasn’t through AT&T.; Hmmmm.

David was sleeping in Singapore. I was without internet in Bartlesville and no information of any kind as to where we got our service. I had never seen a bill and presumed that he had it directly deducted from our checking account and that the email came to his address as I had never seen it.

I went out to talk to the AT&T; man on the pole. No, he said, there shouldn’t have been anything he did that would affect my service and, in any case, he couldn’t help me. Especially if my service wasn’t with AT&T.;

I was confounded.

What to do? I went back into the office and looked at the Vonage box. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Voila! Internet! Cool. Our DSL is through Vonage. Little did I know that Vonage doesn’t offer DSL. All I knew was that my internet was working once again.

This morning, I woke up and we had no internet. The page was directed to, you guessed it, AT&T.; What?

Apparently, they disconnected us for failure to pay. What?

Now, mind you, they couldn’t find us in their system. Somehow, though, David managed to get an account number from one person he talked to and they were then able to find our service. We paid the outstanding amount that was due and our internet was finally restored.

I still have no idea why we weren’t billed for four months and I still have no idea why they couldn’t find us in their system. What I do know is that we now have internet, it’s with AT&T;, and they will be emailing future bills to me.

This story is brought to you by the letter I for I’m not an airhead. I could not come up with that story without a little help from the other sponsors of this story the letters A & T.