Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Clare Island appears, disappears from moment to moment.
Last night the wind howled, as Paul put it, "like straight
out of Lear!" Is this summer? Nearly. Not quite.

Last night I talked to Nelson (4,500 air miles away)
using Skype -- online. I remember calling home 
to Renton while hosteling around Europe in 1977.
One had to locate a call center, generally in a big city.
The drill was you'd write your desired phone number down
at the front desk, then they'd assign you a retrieval number,
and when that appeared above one of the booths, your 
call had gone through, and you had the booth to yourself
for as long as you wanted, but it was pricey --  thankfully
good ol' mom accepted my collect calls. There weren't many
options back in the old days. Now I can video-chat with my sons
for not a penny. We are spoiled!

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