Kind of goofy to have a page about our phone number, but anyway ...

831-704-1776 to us means 831-Fourth of July-1776. Every American knows the 4th of July, 1776 is the date of American Independence. (No offence to our Great Friends in Great Britain!)

Before we formally founded WeatherWool, we had decided we would always be 100% pure American. When we called New Jersey Bell, the local telephone company, for a number, they said we could choose among the numbers that were available within our landline exchange, 973-761-xxxx. Debby immediately asked for -1776, and that number was available, and for about 11 years that was our office number. And we have that number still.

But as soon as we had -1776, I got it into my head to try for xxx-704-1776. And periodically I would make an attempt. In about 2016, I spent a couple of hours speaking with the phone companies trying unsuccessfully to get that number.

Way back when, I used to do a lot of financial work, and our senior partner had gone to great expense to get 212-xxx-x000 as the phone number. The "212" means original New York City ... an area code that had long been filled up. He didn't care about the exchange, but wanted a number ending in "000" because that suggests a large company and I think he actually purchased all 1000 numbers ending in 212-xxx-x000. It was a bunch of money and, remembering that bit of history, plus my own unsuccessful efforts, it was in my head that getting xxx-704-1776 would similarly be a heavy lift.

And so for around 10 years, this idea of a 704-1776 number remained another example of my over-enthusiasm. ... Until on 3 April 2021, I was talking with Denali and Alex, and this idea came up in the conversation. While Alex and I continued talking, Denali started typing. And within 5 minutes she announced

"I just bought 831-704-1776 for $19 plus $6 per month."

Check out NumberBarn.com if there is a particular phone number you want. Our (Denali's actually) experience with them was astoundingly positive!

Updated 29 June 2024 --- Ralph