Friday, May 3, 2002

I can hardly stand it. By 5:45 a.m. I was awake and had so many ideas that I had to jump out of bed to write them all down. The computers were booted soon afterward and I have been bopping around like Curious George the monkey since then. It is now 7:59 a.m.

What I can hardly stand is waiting for business offices to open. I want to call a list of businesses to ask questions and their offices do not open until 8:00 am at the earliest. In one minute, I can call the first establishment. However, it is most likely that the person that can answer my question will not arrive until later in the morning, requiring me to call back later. The next business does not begin to answer its telephones until 8:30 a.m. I have been waiting for hours to make these calls.

By 8:45 a.m., the Rogers Internet service was down for the count, and apparently for the day. Again! The service seems to be down as much as it is available. Their explanation is that they are upgrading services. When this intrusive upgrade is finished, they will no doubt want increase the bill to cover the "improvements". Time to consider an alternative ISP.

Here I am, 9:05 a.m., one hour later and several calls into my day. The first call resulted in a dead end due to the Ontario Government employee's strike. The second call was to a Federal Government body and the response was quick, rich in detail, and extremely helpful. The third call was to the Telephone Company and that was truly fortuitous, they are starting to bill us for services previously free and although we had been notified, I was unaware of the change. Missives from the Telephone Company seldom get my undivided attention. I have reordered the telephone services to save us money and to reflect how we actually use the telephone.

The rest of my calls were relatively unsuccessful, and now await the business hours of Monday morning. The remainder of the day found me in front of the computer, glued by code.

Saturday, May 4, 2002,

I just read somewhere out there that "in the right light, we are all special". This led me to contemplate how special people really are, and how few actually become aware of their own unique importance. It seems to me that each person needs to seek out the context within which they are remarkable, to move away from that or those which fail to commend.

As they say, location, location, location is everything.

It is a beautiful morning, full of sunshine and blue skies. Yesterday I meant to go for a walk, I really did. However, I spent the day wandering about in my head instead of on the streets. I hear from and interact with so many different people and ideas on the computer that the physical world has difficulty competing. Of course, part of this dynamic is that Attila finds himself in another "busy season" and works during daylight hours. Left to my own devices, I am prone to follow my thoughts into cyberspace.

Today I shall walk beneath the budding trees, perhaps a jaunt into the village or a trek to the local Tim Horton’s donut shop. The streets are so beautiful right now. The budding leaves are tight round globes that polka dot the blue sky with striking patterns of varied green. I can see all this from my chair in front of the computer; the colors tug and pull at me to rise and venture out of my cerebral cocoon. It seems the sap still rises.