Category Archives: blue funks

Jack does NOT look like Statler OR Waldorf…. no, really……

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Jack’s weekly guest blog

We switched from a reliable but slow Verizon phone and internet service to a fast but unknown Comcast service a few months ago. When it works it’s great, but this morning seriously tested my forgiving Quakerish tendencies!

Starting with a phone call from our good friend Jennifer Cutting and leader of The Ocean Band (one of the headliners at Big Stone Celtic in a few weeks) which ended up being carried on over 5 interrupted calls. Then a long standing customer came in to make various orders on-line with ABE Books and that turned into a long and much interrupted process as well !

The blasted router kept switching itself off and on again as if it had a bit-part in ‘The I.T. Crowd’ and causing serious delays in all our work. Of course people phone in orders and reservations to The Second Story Cafe and almost certainly Kelley had as many problems as me.

But I can remember when my family in Scotland were unusual in having a phone at all and no-one except a science fiction writer would have imagined the Internet. Now here we are and we have become dependent on technology. It’s mostly technology we don’t understand and can’t repair – I can also remember when you didn’t have to plug your car into a computer to find out what was wrong with it.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon! Or maybe these two muppets had it right!

Statler and Waldorf discover computers

Oliver and JackHey wait, how did that picture get there? We don’t look anything like Statler and Waldorf……

 

Getting Away from It All…..

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Jack’s guest blog covers the dark side of nature…..

Wendy and I have a log cabin about two hours away that is very isolated, with no telephone, TV, internet or cell phone reception. It’s normally very restful and relaxing to hide away there for a few days. Wendy can get writing done there without distractions. The dogs love it because they can go off and wander to their hearts’ delight and there’s a pond for them to swim in.

And me? I can deal with the repairs and maintenance that are always needed there in our holiday dream home…..

But this time it was hot and thundery – VERY hot and thundery! With no breeze and no air conditioning I found myself becoming more and more lethargic. The dogs hardly moved except to dive into the pond and the only one to expend any energy was our ‘special’ kittie Hadley, who we’d taken as well as a treat.

Despite all that languid pressing heat, I still managed to deal with wasps’ nests, wood-boring bees, a ginormous wolf spider clinging to (Wendy says “carrying off”) a Mason jar in the sink, and get some weed-whacking done. Wendy got writing aplenty done and the dogs got so smelly in the pond they needed a bath this morning when we returned home. So all in all it was a success–at least for everyone but the spider.

Sometimes it’s good to get away. And sometimes, it’s better to get back to air conditioning – – –