Paul and I decided it would be wise not to have our phone number listed in the phone book. He gives out his mobile number for business reasons, but we have had people (including an unstable customer) call our home. We would prefer not to deal with this again and also for our address to be less visible.

So today I called the phone company to have our number not listed in next year's phone book. The customer service representative said it costs over two dollars a month not to have your number in the phone book!! If we also want to not be included in directory assistance the total goes up to $4.50! A MONTH!!!

But, hey, it costs the phone company so much to do NOTHING! There's the ink they won't use to publish our number. There's the directing those who call to the recording saying our number is unlisted instead of to the recording with our number. And these must be recurring expenses. Because we will be paying every month! Where else do you pay extra NOT to do something. The grocery store doesn't charge extra if I don't want my milk in a bag. Restaurants don't charge extra if I don't want a side item. (Most even let me substitute something else for no extra charge!) The car wash doesn't charge me extra not to vacuum my car.

We should have the right to decide if we want our number published or unpublished. And we should not have to pay them for that right! If they wanted to charge a small one-time fee for their trouble (I mean, someone probably spends two minutes typing in our request) I wouldn't complain. But to charge me every month for something that doesn't cost them a thing! That's just wrong!

OK, my rant is now over. I can resume normal life.