Joy Unconfin'd!

It is with a swimmy head and a giddy tummy that the Management announces the advent -- after 13 and a half months without it owing to our move to the country (that's 58 weeks, 406 days, 9,744 hours, 584,640 minutes, or 35,078,400 seconds -- each dragging on longer than the last) -- of a true-blue, no-shit wi-fi BROADBAND connection into Jingo Acres.

Although Loudoun Wireless (you absolutely must check out their web site!) installed the gear yesterday afternoon, they only turned on the tap early this morning.

(Ed. note: John and Gloria at Loudoun Wireless have, since I posted this, put up a much more robust and informative site and I hereby apologize for giggling at the one-pager that they've had up for a year. They run an excellent service, and for anybody local to Lovettsville or Waterford, it's absolutely the way to go. Call them now!)

The first sign of our deliverance was the absence from breakfast of young Freddie, the inveterate online gamer who has suffered even more than blog-happy Dad the 28.8 modem speed we got through dialup on these noisy copper land-lines. I checked in his room to find a young man with popping eyeballs manipulating his PlayStation Portable, engaged in battle royal against some luckless victim in cyberspace. Today being the first day of school in our county, it was a bit heartbreaking to wrench him away from his newly invigorated pastime, but duty calls. It's how we build our Character House.

The next few days will be a series of thrilling Firsts. Already we've had First Streaming Video (CNN.com -- Katrina beating the kapok out of N'Awlins). Haven't downed any music yet, but I'll top up the iPod tonight. Haven't built a shared iCal family calendar yet. Haven't shared the family photo album. Haven't uploaded any gigantic Illustrator files to the office. Haven't yet cheerfully opened any gargantuan mail enclosures from well-meaning friends -- "Here's a 15-minute QT video of our baby spitting up, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!" -- instead of either deleting them or waiting until I'm at work to look at them. Haven't visited Weebl and Bob or watched any online commercials about personal fragrances with guaranteed viral moxie.

(Oh, I'm sorry! You probably won't want to click on those links if you're on dialup! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I shouldn't be flaunting it, should I. No gloating. Tee hee.)

I've got a sneaky little hunch that after my noon daily meeting, I juuuuust might find a reason to "work from home" this afternoon.

Send me stuff, people. Send me BIG stuff. Entire episodes of some TV show, or a whole movie. Homemade pr0n. Your lousy band's demo. Whole Grateful Dead concerts. Amusing Flash movies.

I CAN TAKE IT!