Fate Makes A Lousy Sparring Partner

The tenth of April came and went, but our phone lines are still dead.

It isn’t just us; all our neighbors and pretty much everyone up and down the road we live on do not have their telephones yet. But the most annoying part is that none of them seem to find it annoying. Why not? Mobile phones.

Oh, sure.

But I, on the other hand, have been going for three weeks straight without Wi-Fi, and it has been clawing at me. Especially more so, since I began the Mathew persona. It’s like fate is having a good old chuckle at my expense.

I can see it now: this scene is playing out in my head where Fate is sitting at a bar with his buddies Death and Taxes, and they’re having this hearty old laugh while Fate goes:

“… and then he thinks since he has internet, he can keep it up for as long as he wants,”

“HAW HAW HAW!”

“And, and…. It’s been THREE WHOLE WEEKS!”

Death raises his glass, “To Fate!”

“Hear, hear!” Taxes calls

Loud guffaws resume.

End scene.

Lack of Wi-Fi totally wouldn’t have bothered me if it wasn’t for the blog. If it had been three months ago, I’d have been, “Darn it,” and then gone for my favorite, age old, well known and respected quote:

“Shit happens,”

And I would have probably followed that up with a “Meh,” for good measure.

These days, it’s not as easy. It’s so annoying when I walk through every minute of the day wondering what the heck is happening on Facebook, and how many hits the site is getting; worst of all, I can’t read articles, visit my favorite blogs nor do research.

I have a temper, and I keep getting riled up each and every time the telephone company makes some excuse, or says something like ,”They’re on their way,”.

Darn it, capitalism did it again. Sigh.

I was planning to have something posted yesterday, but then there came this small family gathering that I had to attend. Well, I enjoyed it; it was pretty awesome. Meeting cousins after like six or seven years, and trying to guess who was who before they told you and spoiled the fun; having folks coming running at you and going, “Do you remember Uncle Ted? Aunt Lily?” while crushing you in bear hug after bear hug; what’s not to like?

Some of the best parts were looking at the guys you used to play with as children, and trying to see the old snot nosed, smudge faced kid under all the facial hair. And, as it turned out, the feeling was mutual with a lot of them.

The highlight, though, was listening to older aunts telling you about how you were as a kid. No, I don’t mean, “Do you remember when wittle Matt took his first itty bitty step?”

With me, it was more of a, “HAW HAW, and do you remember how whenever Matt came over, Sam* would go and hide all his toys so that Matt wouldn’t break them?”

Sam, by the way, was three years older than me. And at the time of this story, I was maybe three or four years old myself. Wow.

It turns out I was a heck of a kid. People who know me these days would probably not believe I had that kind of past. Since I can remember, Mum always told me how… um… let’s say how lively I was as a child. But, as you always know, things seem much more real, and much more believable coming from someone else.

I guess really was a pest back then. The same type as those young brats who always keep crying out in busses, who always squirm around when standing next to you, and in general, who keep annoying the hell out of me. It’s true, then. What goes around, comes around.

And the most interesting phrase that most of them somehow kept repeating:

“And look at how he turned out after all…”

Well, to be honest, it was never in those words exactly, but they meant as much, in their varied, assorted versions. In any case, I cannot say for sure whether they meant it in a good way or bad, but for the sake of optimism, I’m going for the good way.

Where was I going with this…?

Oh, yeah. Family function, was a dinner event, and so I wound up spending the night at my aunt’s house. I hadn’t taken my laptop, and it wouldn’t have made a difference if I had. For one thing, she didn’t have Wi-Fi either, and for another, I was so pooped after being on my feel all day, I promptly fell into bed.

Bottom line, did not get a chance to post anything. And now you know, I had not prepared anything to post, either. Which is why this particular one is a truer ramble and a more honest raving than most of the rest of what I’ve posted here.

What was the point of this post, you ask? Definitely not to impress you with my three year old antics. (Though I once jumped out of a moving car. True story)

(No, wait, that was my younger sister. I think she was two. That was indeed a true story. True story)

Rather, this post was to stop me from descending once again into the abyss where so many of my past hobbies have gone. There was the comic book drawing I did with N, then the diary that I kept (or tried to keep. Lost touch with that after a few months. Later, I tried twice more, at different times, but with the same result). All of them had an expiry date.

Fact of the matter is, I’m not good with sticking to things, and this blog is one thing I cannot afford to let go of.

Come rain, snow, or loss of Wi-Fi, The Blog Must Go On.

I do realize I just tempted Fate and his bar buddies to come at me repeatedly. So be it. At the very least, should make for some interesting stuff to write about up ahead.

Bring it on, Fate!

  

                *All names have been changed to protect identities of the people mentioned