Today I am home, running errands and getting ready to depart for Indiana tomorrow. The day started auspiciously as I woke up after 11 hours of sleep feeling — if not healthy — not wanting to die, either. I went to wrap one of my mom’s Christmas gifts — an Audubon gardening journal — I noticed that the months went from February to June, and June through August repeated. But no March. Of course, I’d long since thrown out the receipt, but I thought I’d stop by Porter Square Books just in case they had another copy and wouldn’t mind exchanging it. When I showed the woman behind the counter the defective version, she said, “Of course, you may be on your merry way!” Her coworker, overhearing the exchange, said, “No March? I’ll take it — I HATE March!” I <3 my local bookstore.
Despite dire predictions of heavy snow today, it turned out balmy (though D. said that it was snowing heavily when he went to work this morning). It’s been a weirdly mild January, and after three weeks of mostly 40s and 50s, I think it’s more than just a New England January thaw. Kind of creepy, actually, and no wonder everyone in the world is sick — it’s like a Petri dish out there.
Now I have the happy tasks of packing and deciding which books and knitting projects to bring to Indiana. I also have to decide whether to bring Agnes to the wilds of the Midwest and dial-up. On the one hand, it would lighten my carry-on significantly not to bring a laptop — and I’d have to sign up for dial-up service, to boot, since I don’t think my parents have that many hours per month on their plan. On the other hand, I don’t know if I could bear so many days apart from you, Internets! (Oh yeah, and I’m bummed that Doug can’t go too; work is just too demanding right now for him to take time off.)
2fs says:
January 25th, 2006 at 3:41 pm ESTVisit 2fs
Couldn’t you just creep around coffee shops and the like looking for Wi-Fi? Or is Wi-Fi regarded as the work of the devil in that part of Indiana? (Or: “‘Why fie’? That’s an odd thing to say!”)
Editrix says:
January 25th, 2006 at 3:46 pm ESTVisit Editrix
Coffee shops? This is Warsaw we’re talking about here. Think Quality Farm & Fleet and Bob Evans.
Ezra says:
January 25th, 2006 at 5:35 pm ESTVisit Ezra
Also good spots for wi-fi that you might not think of at first are truck stops and McDonalds. I have noted this as we drive to PA and filed it away as a potentially useful bit of information, though I have not availed myself of this yet.
Of course, though I’d miss you, I have been wondering what it would feel like to be un-connected (after the initial withdrawal and panic that I haven’t gotten over when I’ve actually tried this) for more than a few days. So I am tempted to encourage you in this direction too.
But it would be funner for me to get updates from the road!
Ezra says:
January 25th, 2006 at 5:35 pm ESTVisit Ezra
And bravo for Porter Square Books!
Editrix says:
January 25th, 2006 at 6:13 pm ESTVisit Editrix
I had entertained the tiny hope that my parents’ neighbors might have an unsecured wi-fi gizmo, but really, how likely is that? And even they did, the houses are probably too far apart.
Basically, what I want is to be able to curl up with Agnes after my parents go to bed at night, so McDonald’s won’t cut it.
At the very minimum, I can check my email via webmail and maybe peek in on Bloglines now and then. (Cue violins. . . .)