IT AIN'T ALL PEACHES AND CREAM!

Observation of the Day!

This week I found out how hard it is to be a man of the 21st century. It’s not all “peaches and cream”. The first problem I encountered as a traveling man of the 21st century is that you have a lot of wires to pack. Rechargers for the computer, the cell phone, the digital camera battery, the Bluetooth, and the IPOD, and don't forget the digital camera download and the IPOD playlist editing cables. I stuff them all in my duffel bag, and when I get them out they are a tangled mess, leading to 21st century frustration. How in the hell do they get so mixed up?

As you all know, we have been in Michigan for a week. We started in the Detroit area and moved a little north to Lakeside Lake, then to Five Lakes a little farther north, and finally we started home over the Mackinaw Bridge and the Upper Peninsula. We went further north into the Upper Peninsula to visit with Doe’s brother for a couple of hours before we started the final leg of the trip. That’s where the trouble started.

The major challenge was that there is no wireless network to accommodate my computer window to the world at the Lakes. There were no obituaries from The Marion Chronicle Tribune, no Minneapolis Star Tribune so I could not yell at the stupidity of Sid Hartman’s column, no San Diego Union Tribune for Nirvana news , no Drudge, no USA Today, no news from my stock portfolio, which is actually a good thing. However, as a man of the 21st century I had my new cell phone with web access, and I was able to get the basic news and scores while I was in lower Michigan. I would survive. However, the wilderness of the UP would change the feeling of security.

The north woods is really the north woods. Friggin’ trees everywhere. Verison may have the largest geographical coverage of any cell phone provider, but it ain’t in the north woods. I was totally isolated, except for my new IPOD that replaced the one I lost. I was without a IPOD for about three weeks. I couldn’t stand it and bought a new and more expensive one. Now I had no cell phone and no computer. Anxiety built. I was now one of those people addicted to the tools of the 21st century. I was one of those people I had made fun off.

Hello, my name is Sam and I’m an addict.

We finally got back to civilization and the cell contact renewed, and I was getting close to home and the comfortof my wi-fi. All is now well in the 21st century.

Have a nice day!

Sammy Carl.