Click-click-a-click…

Friday, July 7th, 1995

Hello from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where all the wind gusts are strong, all the fourth-of-july hot dogs are good looking, and all the Internet connections are long distance. Well, maybe not all of them, but the ones I can get access to certainly seem to be, especially when viewed from this small corner of the world, where, apparently, touch-tone dialing has yet to make its appearance. With a Powerbook tucked under my arm, I trek from my wife’s parents’ cottage across the road to our friends Doug and Ruthette, who at least have a phone. Then, because it’s my cheapest option at this point, my little machine pulse-dials Atlanta, and, long distance, Eudora fetches and sends email while we socialize across the kitchen table in their beautiful house.


The system works, and works reliably, but it’s not the kind of flat-rate connection that encourages you to spend a lot of time web-surfing. So I haven’t. Instead, I’ve been, yes, on vacation, and this electronic link with Cyberland is trimmed back to the minimum necessary for conducting business (because in the freelance world, one can never turn the switch off completely.)


If I get a moment in between all this recreating, I’ll try to give you a few thoughts about the value of computing in rural communities, especially up here where it gets very isolated in the winter months. Seems like living in the big cities we take modern telecommunications for granted.


Sammy’s father has started a fire in the woodstove. We’ll talk again soon, I hope.