Under Construction

Yes, the Slow Boat was, um, in dry dock for a bit, as we were without a reliable internet connection for the “next day or two” (which, of course, turned into five). Seems that our university replaced its internal campus-wide network with one that is newer, cheaper, outsourced, and, oh yeah, didn’t really work for more than two minutes at a time. Wow, five whole days without the internet? How did we survive, huh? And now the internet, which was running fine when I started this post, is cutting out. Then back in again. Who knows - we may end up being off line for a whole week or more!

Being off of the internet, even for such a brief amount of time, reminded of when I was an exchange student for a year in Germany, back in 1984 / the Bronze Age (take your pick), when my contact with the States was mostly via airmail, supplemented by a monthly phone call that cost my parents, I don't know - two head of cattle and five swine per minute, I think. My mom would go to the post office and add Bloom County comics cut from the newspaper (!) to each letter until it topped off the scale at the regular airmail rate. And yes, I biked thirty minutes to school in the rain, uphill one way at least. (And if you don't know what Bloom County comics are, what are you doing reading this blog, anyway?) Anyone still undecided on if the world has changed much or not? Yep, it's changed, all right.

So, back to the present. One coping strategy of mine during the "crisis" was to edit a few sets of photos, and write a couple of blog entries on the ol’ laptop. So you can expect a flood of information soon.

Or in the next few days.

Really.