Some time ago, my phone number was 254-9912. At the same time, the number you called to report power outages to Alabama Power was 254-9
112. Needless to say, I got a lot of wrong numbers.
Every time the wind blew, my phone would start ringing off the hook. At first I'd be polite, then after the sixth or seventh call I'd just take my phone off the hook.
As bad as the daylight calls were, the ones that came in the middle of the night were infinitely worse. What earthly difference it makes whether the power is on or off at 3:00 am I was never able to figure out.
The final straw came when an older gentleman called me four times between 2:00 am and 4:00 am one night. The first three times I patiently explained that he had dialed the wrong number, and I even went so far as to give him the correct number. The fourth time he called I was all out of patience, and I asked him rather brusquely "Why don't you call the number I gave you?" to which he replied "I did, but it was busy".
The next day I called the phone company and had them change my number. After hearing the above story, they did so for free.
