Technology

We have been limping along the information super highway with a real slow irritating computer lately.  It's like a bike that is stuck in low gear and you can never get it going at any kind of decent speed.  We finally broke down and bought a new one, and it is real nice.  But before this entered our house, we were using the computer less and less, just because it was so frustrating.  And in the middle of this, we told Ildar our tale of fever woe (see below) from our days in the Peace Corps.  And I got to thinking about those two years back in the mid-nineties.  Granted, we were in the Carribean, so not so far away as Borneo or something like that, but we lived without TV, a phone that could make international calls (and for one year without a phone of any sort) or a computer.  This was right around the time that email and the internet were being introduced at the household level, so it's not like we were used to it and having to do without, we were just without.  Our news came from the BBC radio programs we could find, and letters from home. Today it seems absolutely crazy that you could be anywhere in the world and still have only letters as a form of communication with home.  Not to mention just communication between Jon and I as we both went about our business on the island.  There were no cell phones or texting or any such thing.  All we had to rely on was the market lady where we both stopped for fruits and veggies before jumping on the bus home.  It was often that I'd stop by and be about to grab a few grapefruit or something and she would say, "No sweetie, no need, your husband just bought a handful of those about an hour ago."  She would then go on to tell me that he did not get any onions, and it had been awhile since either of us had bought any of those, we probably needed some.  Texting shmexting.  Not needed when you have the market lady watching over you.