Since reinstalling my operating system a week or two ago, I had not gotten around to re-installing ActiveSync, which synchronizes the information from my Windows Mobile cell phone to my PC. I did so last night, and then took the opportunity to rethink whether I want to reinstall FinchSync or find some other non-Outlook sync solution. (I don’t have Outlook on my PC.) I tried installing a sync program for Google calendar, but I couldn’t get it to work properly. About that time, I noticed that my phone had lost signal.

I was certain that I had turned something off or changed some sort of setting in the process of fumbling around to find the Google file. I looked at everything, but to no avail. I restarted the phone with the power button; I took out the battery and the smart card and then reinserted them; I checked every setting I could figure out how to check. No luck — and by the time I gave up, AT&T’s call center had shut down for the night.

So I resigned myself to having to call this morning and eat some crow with a condescending tech support person for whatever it was I had recklessly done to my phone.

But this morning, the phone is getting a signal again. The apparent explanation, which may still turn out to be wrong, is that my local service was coincidentally down last night, independent of what I was trying to do to my phone.