Wireless Wednesday
A long time ago, while helping someone set up a component stereo system (remember them?), I remarked that modern life is living with wires.
And it still comes down to wires, whether they are made of metal or silicone.
Wednesday, I was wireless. In fact, my whole street was. A garbage truck tore down the main lines feeding the street, as well as one of the poles they were attached to. It took out the electricity, the landline, and the cable, and it emphasized how wound up with wires our lives have become.
I was able to get online for a while with the “connection sharing” feature of my cellphone (and for all that Windows Mobile isn’t a great OS, the connection sharing feature is nice) until the laptop died. I guess, had I been desparate, I could have trotted it out the my truck and plugged in the inverter I keep around for emergencies.
I did manage to catch up on a couple of magazines (remember magazines?) that were lying around. Then the sun went down and candlelight doesn’t cut it for reading.
And through it all, I found myself marveling at how much the internet has become part of my daily routine, whether for recreation, learning, blogging, or work (the one project I have right now involves setting up a website for someone).
In fact, once the sun went down, I couldn’t find anything to do, so I went to bed. At that time, the power had been off for eight hours. It came back on during the night.
(On top of everything else, this happened on one of the few days when it has been miserable hot and sticky enough that I actually turned on the air conditioner.)
Here’s a picture of the downed pole, taken just as the cops were blocking off the main road (downed wires reached across it). The culprit is parked just to the right behind the trees.