Well, I managed to make my mortgage payment today, having found the bill last night. I was sitting at the table, about to write the check, when I noticed that the loan company had a Web site. There was a notation that I could pay online. How thoughtful!

So down the hall I went to the computer. Got myself all registered with a clever password, had my banking information in the little blanks and the cursor poised over the Submit button.

Hey just a galldarn minute here, says I. That final payment amount looks wrong. Checking the hardcopy bill, I see it’s $10 more. You know where this is headed, don’t you? Right. Squinting in disbelief at the monitor, I see there’s a $10 service charge for doing it online.

Does this make sense to anyone? I’m doing all the data entry, saving them having to sort and open my mail, route and endorse and deposit the check and everything. All they have to do is download and update a batch file or something. It’s all computerized on their end. They should be paying me!

Needless to say, I mailed it. They can kiss my big fuzzy pink wahzoo. And from now on, I’ll use Yahoo Billpay. That way, they still get paper, but I don’t have to mail it. … Nyahhaha.