Marooned

When I was in Alabama last October, I stopped at a little coffeehouse with free wi-fi in Decatur. I had the distinct impression I was the first person ever to fire up a computer in there. The barista, who might have been the owner, seemed so excited. "Stay as long as you like!" she exclaimed. "Ooh, what a cute computer! I've never seen one like that before!"

I have the graphite one, and you have to admit it is kinda cute.


At Dominican Joe's in the heart of Austin, of course, it's a different story. The place is pretty full, and almost everybody in here has a computer. About half of the ones I can see are newer iBooks and MacBooks. I'm a little self-conscious of mine: the left shift key has given out completely, and my D came off a couple of nights ago. The C is sticking a little bit. It doesn't play DVDs or even burn CDs. It doesn't have enough memory to be able to stream video at all. And now the battery won't charge up any further than 10 percent. I'm seriously beginning to consider gluing whimsical objects to it.

I only rode my bike down here because I'm marooned at home with no internet and no car. Horrible! Or of course I do have a car, but it's a little short on tires just at the moment, and therefore is not really driveable no matter how many whimsical objects it's festooned with.

Thank God for living in Austin.