Tammy is home and just in time too. I was close to forgetting what vegetables look like and was on my last Hot Pocket. Oh, and apparently if you keep compressing the garbage in the can with your foot it becomes impossible to remove. Live and learn. Hmm, and I appear to be missing several right shoes.
I'm not a fan of flying. I always end up with marks from the arm rests where I tuck my muffin tops in. I'd provide a link to a definition for "muffin tops" but I couldn't find one that didn't include inappropriate pictures of girls wearing jeans 2 sizes too small. So anyway, let's say I'm as comfortable on an airplane as a The Church Lady at an Ozzy Ozborne concert. Tammy has to do an Atlanta trip 3 or more times a year and she dreads it. Her trip back this time was a little different though.
We use technology to stay in touch when Tammy is out of town. We try to have video calls each night using Live Messenger but at a minimum we text chat through the day. Nothing makes up for not being together but it does take the hallow feeling away some. If you've ever spent significant time in an empty room you know what I mean. I've moved into new apartments and been too busy to unpack for a week or two. By the time I hung pictures and set out knickknacks I'd start to get fidgety. I'm still alone in the room when Tammy is away but the technology keeps me from getting fidgety.
Tammy's "commute" home on Friday had a little help from the Internet. Her flight was 7 hours long including a layover in Milwaukie. During the layover she sent me email with an update on her progress. We swapped several messages and she mentioned that AirTran was providing free Wi-Fi during her flight so for the leg to Seattle she broke out the laptop and we chatted. A couple weeks ago my friend Doug, who's a tug boat captain, sent me a link to a site that allows you to track ships at sea in real time. That got me to thinking and sure enough I found the same thing for air traffic.
So here I sat in our living room in Lakebay while Tammy was 36,000 feet over Wisconsin traveling at 400+ mph. She's telling me how cramped the seat is while listening to XM satellite radio and I'm letting her know as she crosses over state boundaries or flying over major landmarks. How crazy is that? The world does seem smaller these days. Her battery went dead shortly before she crossed in to Montana but I continued to monitor her progress. When she approached Washington State I left the house and the timing was dead on. As I walked up to her baggage carrousel she was coming down the escalator.
Ok, sure, I was about to do the nerd equivalent of the Ickey Shuffle but every time I get close to describing some technology as virtuous I start to think about the shadows left behind. While I never have to feel the severity of that separation the cost is never feeling the joy that comes from a reunion after a long absence. I may never have to sit in a quiet empty room, but it's becoming increasingly hard to find that empty room when I want it. Along with the all the benefits that technology brings comes a sort of digital leash.
I'm not saying that I'm concerned enough that I'm considering disconnecting the power and recycling our computers. I can pull off the look (I have the legs for it), but those brown robes are too drafty and I bet that rope belt chafes. It's enough though to keep me from giving my entire life over to a digital version of itself. There will always be something restorative about the sound a house makes when it settles. I love being able to listen to a good book in the car but there are times when the convenience can't compete with a comfortable chair and the feel of a hard back book in your hands.
So thanks for tuning into this blog and allowing me to decompress my stress. Now turn off your computer and have a look outside. If the lights are on out there then it means the thing we call "The Sun" is in the sky, don't stare at that, it will hurt. But if there aren't any clouds between you and it, you'll likely feel warm and that's pretty nice. If it's dark, spend a few minutes looking up at the sky. Those endless points of light you see are what the writer of Genesis in a footnote on creation referred to when he said "He made the stars also". And that my friend is real technology.
Don't drive angry! Drive weird!
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