Reply to Whirlerz & others
I have not used this myself, but a possible solution to some of the problems with phone service might be VoIP, or "Voice over Internet Protocol." I ran across the following doing some research at work, and have not used it myself, and I also don't know how long it will remain freeware, but anyway, here is the link.
http://www.skype.com
And as a sidenote to Whirlerz for the library trip, you might also want to find, "No Logo" and "Fences and Windows" by Naomi Klein, and
"The Divine Right of Capital," but I can't remember the name of the woman who wrote it right now.
PZ