Filed under: Uncategorized
In the middle of January, when I’m reclining at home with nothing much to do because all regional construction work has gone on hiatus, I’d be well served to remember the August days. I been ‘whee busy, dear friends.
Today is a road day. Haven’t been on a road trip in a while. Back when I had the business a road trip to coastal Carolina was so routine that I had an overnight bag with rotating T-shirts and the Hampton Inn on speed dial. Now, it’s a break in the tedium. Same work, different town.
But I never had a wireless laptop back then. If I had, it’s likely that the hotel clerk would have given me a blank look when I asked about their wireless network. Now I get a dismissive sniff that sez, “Silly old man. Just fire it up. Everybody has a laptop. Think you’re special?”
Remember now, I’m a child when it comes to such things. AM radio I can handle. And in a way, a wireless laptop in a strange hotel room isn’t much more than a small transistor radio with a breakable antenna, to me. You’ve might have to perch the thing near the window for any kind of reception. You might note the AC unit directly below, blowing freezing drafts up your shorts while you tune in various networks (which occasionally bonk on you). You might stuff hotel pillows over the AC and under your arms, being as how it’s 4 in the morning and the tiny pillows are useless for sleeping on, anyway.
I suppose I could go out on the balcony and the signal might improve. Then I could sit in fetid Carolina heat, with a laptop, on a narrow balcony in the dead of night and try my best to come up with a knowing and mature countenance when the hotel clerk happens by.
Eh. The work starts in a couple of hours. There is ice to fetch for the cooler, an overnight bag to pack. Maybe an egg sammich at the Waffle Hut next door. An eight hour session of focused carpenter mayhem. And a four hour drive at the end of it all, on a truckers route up the coast and back to the swamp and the little house and the woman who lives there.
Especially, and particularly, the woman who lives there.
