Involuntarily Disconnected

The mood surrounding last night's untimely failure of an old splice in the cable down by the street and its subsequent repair by the cable company a short time ago are another reminder of the degree to which many of us have grown dependent on technology and instant access to information.

At first, there was a feeling of panic, as if somehow something had been stolen. At times, life is unfair, and initially, this felt like one of those times.

"Does this happen often?" was the question posed to the friendly cable company representative during a late-night phone call, "We've only been here a month."

"It happens often enough", came the reply. "We'll have to schedule a service call.

Let's see ... tomorrow .... from 1 to 5?"

The news that connectivity should be restored within 24 hours came as a tremendous relief and an eerie feeling of calm swept over me.

Is that normal?

Should emotions be so easily swayed by the thought that a "disconnected" state would soon be remedied and that maybe a 15-hour internet-free interlude might be an interesting experience?

Septuagenarians, including my parents, often talk about how people are addicted to their cell phones or their email. Clearly, blogs do nothing but add to the addiction that modern technology has become.

Earlier today, the TV still worked, so it was turned on and tuned in to CNBC where they were talking about the Blackstone IPO - it looked like everyone was on speed. Does everybody have to talk that fast? Is the Blackston IPO that exciting?

Apparently it is.

Fortunately a round of golf was planned for this morning and while the "Mid-year review of the year-end predictions" (very impressive, so far) was all set to go this morning, it has now been rescheduled for next week.

Playing golf with three seventy-year-olds really puts things into perspective (one of them beat me by eight strokes!) and upon returning a short time ago, the cable truck parked in the driveway was almost an unwelcome sight.

Anyway, as should be clear with the tardy first offering you are now reading, things are about back to normal.