Netless in Tallahassee


So, for those of you who like to keep track of what I'm doing, which I'm assuming is pretty much all of you if you're reading this, I've been minding my parents' house for the last few days. For one thing, they have lots of food around for me to graze on, as well as the fact that this is sort of my obligation since they gave me a free iMac. But I don't mind.

There's also a cat about. The cat, unfortunately, has an infection that requires her to take a pill twice daily. As you can imagine, getting a cat to eat something that it's not inclined to is not a particularly fun task, even if the cat in question is rather small and fairly stoic about the whole thing. It essentially involves prying the cat's mouth open and tossing in the pill, then making her swallow it. I've discovered that, yes, if the cat isn't properly appeased before and after this event, those claws will go right through my gloves. Ow.

Anyway, the main thing of note, besides me gorging on my parents' food, is that big storm that went through Georgia on Sunday night (and, by extension, Tallahassee, since we're a part of Georgia in all but name). We didn't get any tornadoes, but we did get lightning. Lightning tends to spook the cat, so she spent the night outside, cowering somewhere. Heck, most things tend to spook the cat, even the dishwasher, the sound of which will make her pause, ears swivelling around like little radar dishes as she tries to triangulate the generator of those terrible gurgling noises. She was a cat of surl on Monday morning, when she finally showed up and demanded to be let back in. The cat equivalent of "You big jerk!" was warbled repeatedly as she stalked about.

The other facet of this storm was the lightning. At some point, I noticed that, hey, there was lightning out there, and obligingly went around and un-plugged all the more sensitive widgets in the house.

Unfortunately, the power surge had already come down the phone lines a while previously.

So, it killed my parents' portable phone (or, at least, the base station, which is close enough), the modem on their computer, and the modem on MY computer, which I'd brough over to keep myself entertained. I was less than amused by this. Well, okay, it's somewhat amusing, but it means that I won't be able to 'Net from home until I go back to my apartment upon my parents return. Oh, no. The horror. However will I cope? It also means we're collectively out a fair quantity of modemage and phoneage. Grife. Why is everything going pif this month? I get the point, already. I won't make smarmy comments about my luck any more. Sheesh. Reality can be so damn pushy. On the other hand, a fair number of people in Georgia got offed by this particular storm, so I guess I can't complain about a few lousy pieces of (now suffering from a bit of interior char) plastic, now can I.


Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, died over the weekend. Now that's dramatic timing. Not really much left to say that hasn't been said already.

Which tasks me. I keep reading these informative, deep, insightful statements on his death by people, and I, having very little poetry in my soul, can only manage things like "Peanuts was consistently entertaining for longer than I've been alive, and Mr. Schulz was a pretty cool guy." There's an ending, yes, but not truly a departure - all art has something of the soul of its creator in it; so what story-teller can truly be said to be gone whose stories are still read, enjoyed, and remembered.

And that's all there is to say about that.


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