24 August, 2000

Colorado

Well, I was well past Newton when I heard back from Uncle John. He warned me not to fall asleep driving as he had done a few weeks back. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. He called me again the next day from Tellme phonebooth, as I had suggested to him the magic of 800-555-Tell. I managed to eek out not too bad of a sleep in the car at a rest stop in Nebraska. After breakfast I plugged the laptop in to the jack of one of the phones that the restaurant had at various booths for truckers. I had Sean's number stored in my email, so I had to check my email to get it out so I could call him. Well, it wasn't easy. I had to dial by calling card, which in the old days would be easy stuff, but now instead of just putting the dial string in I had to configure this magic calling card menu in Windows 2000, which doesn't work. Then I noticed that in fact I could edit the dial string and clean it up the old-fashioned way, and I connected to Meer, which refused my credentials. So I put EnterAct in there, and things worked, and the computer crashed. So I hooked up again and retrieved Sean's number.

I felt frustrated and a little embarassed as the locals sitting around the restaurant were quietly watching this wiz kid geek be repeatedly stymied by his attempts to dial out and connect to the Internet. If I can't get a stupid computer to work ... I kept blaming Bill Gates.

Well ... so, I left Sean a message or two, as I dropped in to Colorado and headed for the Raywah Ranch, which is way out in the middle of nowhere, then you turn right down a dirt road for thirty minutes. After looking around for Sean who was out looking around for Cory, Sean came back and saw me, who he had not expected. I had never talked to him directly, see? I had simply called and been recognized as "Sean's friend." Actually, I had received a call on my cell from Sean asking if Cory was there. I told him he must have the wrong number. Anyway, a restful night in the bunk house, and I've had a shower, breakfast, some quiet reading time, gave Sean a test drive in the Insight, and helped him unpack the week's delivery off the Sysco truck, which involves backing a pickup truck to the delivering Semi, and then ferrying the goods to the kitchen on the pickup truck. I helped unload at the kitchen, and it was fun, educational, and good exercise.

Sean told me he has me on the waiting list for an afternoon horse ride. Well ... we'll see about that. I may sneak off for some quiet, tranquil sight-seeing on my own. It is very pleasant up here, lots of critters and lots of stars at night. Relaxation is sitting back and watching other critters go casually about their lives. There are birds flitting about in front of me to the background music of a mountain stream. Now, if only the Swedish bikini team were to parachute in ...

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