It's not just that it's cheap. That's nice, but if it made life more complicated it wouldn't be worth it.
It's not just the free calls thing since I rarely call people.
It's not the caller ID thing, though that's actually kinda cool (I'd never pay for it but since it's free it seems okay to dig it.)
It's not that I can set up a UK phone number, though I'd have happily paid for that service on top of my old phone service.
It's not that I can have an Alabama number. That's been more hassle than it's worth. Gimmicky. I hope someone in Alabama calling me is saving money, since every time someone asks me for my home phone I say "713... wait, no... what was it?"
It's not that I can have all calls to my US and UK numbers also ring my office and cell phones simultaneously**. Well... yes it is that. That rocks the house. That single-handedly takes away half the stress in my life. I go where I want to go when I want to go and I don't have to worry about coordinating schedules. Beautiful.
But it's not just that.
Check this out:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/756/901/400/vonage%20and%20gmail.jpg)
I've received a voicemail? Really? So I log on to Vonage and ta-da:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/756/901/400/vonage%20voicemail.jpg)
I click Listen
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/756/901/400/vonage%20itunes%20voicemail.jpg)
and there I have the voicemail as an audio file on my computer playing in iTunes. Ever think "I love that voicemail, I'll hate to erase that"? Now you never have to erase! You can even make voicemail remixes!
Okay, I'm over it now. But for someone who's on the computer all the time, this really is so good.
Oh, and for anyone who gets my voicemail... sorry, I'm still trying to figure out how to use my work cellphone. I think if I hit the button on the side it either hangs up the call and redirects to voicemail, or it causes oil prices to go up $2. Not sure which.
**UPDATEWell I think I found a chink in the armor of the Vonage auto-forward feature. If you call the home number, and it auto-rings two other numbers, and one of those is busy, then it seems to go automatically to voicemail. Grrr. May have to fiddle with that.
UpdateGot the car back today. Results:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/756/901/400/DSC00248.jpg)
The white fuzzy bit next to the flash is the reflection of the next car's headlamp. Car looks great. JD Auto Collision, Houston... recommended. They even got me a rental car over the weekend since the repainting was delayed.
Oh, and as Annette pointed out, I never explicitly said I was okay. I was/am okay. Thanks for worrying, though.