Has anyone had any success down loading Silverlight from Microsoft? I have done everything they say to do.  I can find no trace of Silverlight ever being on my computer, yet it will not download.

Silverlight is a browser plugin. You won't see any evidence of it installed on your computer. If you go to a website that uses it, it will run.
Go to this site and see if you can view the content. There is also help for downloading and installation problems available there.
http://silverlight.net/Default.aspx