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An Aggie joke goes like this. There was this Aggie who was trapped on some moving stairs for three hours when the power went off.

This is not a slur on Aggies. I use it to make a point. With technology rampant we some times forget how we used to do things before the high tech toys took over.

There is no Wifi at my Rochester apartments nor a working phone line nor cable modem. I can catch an unlocked wifi signal that is very weak at odd times for a few minutes. I think it is when the owner of "rat cave" (a network I can patch into) has his or her computer on. It is unreliable even when I get a signal.

There is a windows based PC in the recreation room to surf the internet but it is usually occupied. Besides using a PC is like eating peas with a knife for a Mac guy.

So when my Blackberry was receiving email but not sending yesterday, I felt cut off from the world. I needed to respond to an associate and was thwarted.

I re installed the soft wear, reactivated the email account, even called Verizon tech support but nothing worked. No out going email. I even looked up a Verizon store on my mobile Google map and contemplated driving over to enlist the aid of a human.

I needed to respond to the email and was really getting frustrated. That is when I saw a phone number at the bottom of his note. When the cursor touched the number it lit up and a dialogue box asked if I wanted to call. I pressed a button and in a few seconds I was actually talking to my associate.

What a concept, talking. It took less than a minute to solve the crisis.

I am afraid we will some day forget we can add numbers if the calculator is out of batteries.

I know this has got nothing to do with Rochester or the show.... But this is my day off.

As you were,
Jay
www.monkeyjoke.com