I had opted to leave the phone cord plugged in (barring electrical storm forecast as I’ve had a previously bad experience with a modem struck by lightening) to both the wall and the laptop. This is because while on vacation the previous cord was chewed by…. you guessed it – the bad boy wearing the gray tuxedo. I replaced the cord at a cost of $10 and after leaving out one day and finding the connector gnawed, I adopted the ‘leaving it in place’ routine. This morning I was typing away - yes I continue to be the shore captain’s personal assistant although we have developed a more functional relationship where I type and he sits across from me, occasionally asking permission to view the screen – this compromise as he refuses to list points which I can edit and I refuse to have him dictate and/or read over my shoulder. But I digress. As I was typing I heard a suspicious noise (why is it usually the female/mother who says “what’s that noise?”) and said, “Is Gary chewing on the phone cord beside you?” To which the man replied by holding up one end of a completely severed phone cord and no, he hadn’t just chewed the end off; he had chewed the line in half! Since I was composing an email to the Minister of Fisheries a dialup connection was necessary so the man retrieved tools and spliced the line.
You can see the black electrical tape connecting and various pieces of line surrounding the obviously unconcerned juvenile delinquent. I have no hope that this will be the last incident...and I thought the household repairs would diminish when the kids were grown.
Before I finish up my PowerPoint for the library, Keely and I are off to take a stroll in the (hopefully last major) snow of the year. Since spring is only four days away I live in hope.
Speaking of hope I'm providing a link to a story in the Sunday Herald regarding a project in Africa. The author is a distant cousin, Joan Baxter who volunteers for the NSGambia Association:
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/1044032.htmlNow this is true generosity of human spirit.
