Nobody was chatting about the
weather today at the Bakery Deli Cafe. Actually the old
guys had already left except for the Leader of the Pack
(the ringleader of this gang of antique antiquers who
drives a Harley). The owner and the Leader of the Pack
were looking at truck brochures. Last time I was there
everybody was talking about the weather. Of course that
was Friday when that was all everybody talked about
anywhere and everywhere. I kept on belivieving it wasn't
going to be that bad right up until I was shoveling 20
inches of snow. So we're supposed to have major rain and
flooding tomorrow but nobody's talking weather.
Last week there was a miracle at
the Bakery Deli Cafe. I was sitting at my table eating an
onion bagel, drinking coffee, and eavesdropping on the
whole gang of old guys talking about stuff they found at
flea markets and restoring antique clocks and such. They
got up to leave and Mrs. Bakery Deli Cafe asked "Does
that cane belong to one of you guys?" The cane was hung
on the windowsill. It didn't belong to any of the antique
antiquers and it didn't belong to me so one of the old
guys exclaimed "It's a miracle!" Everybody speculated
about whether it was the coffee or the food that allowed
the person to leave their cane behind. We all pretty much
agreed it must be the coffee. I pictured the walls of the
Bakery Deli Cafe decorated with canes and crutches like
at Lourdes (which I haven't been to) or Chimayo (which
I've been to). Alas, the cane was not there today. You
must have to keep up a steady intake of the
coffee.
None of this explains why two days
after the storm the crazy lady is out there sweeping the
slush in the street. Actually, I think she's sweeping
nothing. Just sweeping. She tried to talk to me about the
weather but I just kept staring at the pavement as I
walked to my car. I drove away without making eye
contact. She didn't pursue me with the broom this
time.
I think I just saw a raindrop.
Maybe it was a snowflake. Somehow drenching rain is just
not the thing to bring on the Xmas spirit. I did attempt
shopping today at the Andover Bookstore, but since I
already have the nieces' presents and I don't know for
whom I'm supposed to buy yet in the Secret Santa lottery
because we didn't do the lottery on Thanksgiving I was a
little unfocused. On a conference call last night with
Beach Boy and Kevin we decided to have La Madre draw the
numbers (birth order) for each of us and tell us
privately who we got. I pointed out that we already
missed the deadline for mailing Xmas presents to Iraq so
Kevin says we'll just have to send BiB email with
pictures of the presents he would have gotten.
While we were chatting about snow
accumulation amounts, battleships, tax accounting, and
InfiniBand (no wait, I think I got through a conversation
without mentioning InfiniBand) Andrea asked to speak to
Beach Boy about a computer problem. She was having
trouble formatting her report on great composers in Word.
We all deferred to Kevin since we're not networked
tightly enough to see what's on her screen. Beach Boy
started listing composers: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach... I
chimed in with "Bartok". "Who?" they asked, and went back
to talking about Word. Anyway, I told Andrea if she
needed help with any homework involving used books just
call me. Come to think of it, there are a couple of used
book stores on Bartok Bela ut amidst all the computer
stores...
That thing about emailing pictures
of the presents BiB would've gotten got me thinking about
how the Internet has not lived up to the hype of the last
10 years. A lot of life still involves physical objects
moving around in physical space. Or even physical people
moving around in physical space. Watching a web cam
pointed at Bartok Bela ut is not the same as walking down
it. Just like pictures of the Xmas presents BiB would've
gotten are not the same as opening the packages on Xmas
morning. But the Internet sure has made it easier to get
used books... real physical dusty ones.
