Winterizing

  

                                   Well - it's that time of year again

Up here in northern Vermont, it gets down below minus 30 sometimes. You have to prepare 

for that kind of cold! This means extra insulation for windows - and we already have double 

paned glass. We add extra sheets of transparent plastic sometimes over windows - 

especially on our garage - where the windows are only single panes in places. We also 

plug in the heating tape for our water down below in our crawl space to keep the pipes from 

freezing - and we keep the water flowing slowly in the bathroom sink all winter long!! We 

had our pipes freeze a couple of winters ago and that's not going to happen again.

The Levi Brothers go Online

     The Levi Brothers had been manufacturing fold-up paper dreams for millennia. Their first attempts had been on papyrus using charcoal from oil lamp smoke mixed with  the same oil as ink. Some thought that the entire exodus from Egypt was originated from within a Levi Brothers fold up dream - though even speaking about this would have been blasphemy.
     It was the magic of language behind it all of course. Make no mistake. The wonderful and miraculous universe of ideas - the heady enthusiasms - the music - the colors and light - the dance of the imagination - the intense suspense - all the mystery and romance - the fiercest of battles - all this - the finest  inheritance of the human race - yes, all this - from language - perthaps our highest skill.
     Thought does not need language - but a chorus of thought is aided and ignited by our languages.
     The Levi Brothers knew all this - and more. They knew how to fold paper. You would undo the package and wonder what it contained as you unfolded the contents. It would expand and develop colorfully - almost musically - likes new toys that children can hear - and there it was - as big as life - and you would dream - so pleasant - so fine...
     Today we have books and it is whispered that from the earliest of times that their entire evolution has been predetermined by just a few of their finest fold-up dreams. Which of these you ask? Well, it's certain you already know eh? Those that came to your mind of course because it is sure - it is a certainty that you - like everybody else has dreamt these dreams.
     There is a current of sadness that runs through this technical introduction.
     Some say that in our forgotten history lie terrible times where our very imaginations have been torn from us -  our smiles and all our fondest of memories erased.  All this might have led to much abuse and misuse of our finest of communication systems.
     Be that as it may - and considering all the technical developments since writing on paper began, still the Levi Brothers have developed a new folding system that even eclipses the magnetic tape method of folding and the latest light folding onto light sensitive many layered plastic disk methods.
This method - their latest of all developments for folded dreams - "The Singing Buzz Folded Dream"  will be available online shortly after publishing this public release,,,

                                          Jewelry from the Holy Land

I remember being in a fix in Israel -  low money in my checking account - having enormous
difficulty at the University - language problems - family problems as well - and now my son Avi had
just been born and I had to come up with something. Bingo - I used all the chemistry experience I had
 and came up with etching miniature brass tea services. Would it work? I bought some brass plates
that had been lathe spun to the size and shape I needed - a plastic baby bath tub - a used Singer
sewing machine motor - some paraffin - some nitric and hydrochloric acid. Does this sound like how
 they started Face book or Amazon? Well - it didn't turn out quite that big - but was a turning point in my life - but
more of that later...
Now - here we were again - similar problem - similar orientation - Israeli American. The world of
electronic communication. Social media - and online Israeli jewelry sales - not manufacture - but
sales. I remember going down town Be'er Sheva to a gift store with a few of the plates I'd completed.
They had little wooden miniature leg sets too - cute - different. I wanted to see if I could make a
profit with them. I thought - "if I can get 18 Israeli Pounds for them - I'm OK". I was offered 24
Israeli pounds for each one I had and a request for more! I was in business

I could hardly believe it. American engineering and Israeli art, business insight and dire need had
combined to produce a brand new global start - up - precious metal ornamental art from the Holy
Land at a competitive price.
Now this would be just a collection of words and sentences and ideas - except it is all perfectly true -
and let's face it - that makes it interesting...

Power Glide

Our luck had definitely changed. Daddy had hit the number. Now, many of you might not know anything about the numbers' game. There isn't really much to know - certainly less complicated than today's lottery games - just about as difficult to win - but some important differences. One - the money spent on "numbers" didn't go into the "save crippled hogs hit by cars" fund - it went into the pocket of the "numbers writer. This was usually a WWII vet who was missing an arm or a leg. Many of these guys worked in newspaper stands down town - very convenient for writing numbers. Two - it was totally illegal - as most things worth doing are. The "number" was calculated from the "breakage" at the local race track. This was figured from  the money spent on the para mutual betting - down to the cent - the last three numbers - which was just about impossible to predict or influence. Now I was only about ten years old when all this was going on - so excuse me if I don't get the higher math right - but I do recall my dad explaining it to me and looking in the papers to see what the day's number was. "I hit honey" - he beamed to my mother
- "for a quarter I think - maybe fifty cents." He had been playing the numbers for years now and never won anything - the odds - of course were about one thousand to one - three numbers see? Now there was one hundred dollars extra this month - and a beautiful shiny black Chevrolet Coupe - out front of the house the next day.
  You had to be there. It glowed! I'd never seen a car glow before. Maybe it was my dad's excitement - maybe - who knows - after all these years, one of our prayers, my dad's in this case, was answered, Gosh, alongside one of the fenders in front was the inscription "Deluxe". Wow - not to mention white wall tires - good grief - this was not an earthly  craft at all - no way!! Get this - "PowerGlide" was written along one side - maybe on the back. "What's Powerglide dad?" He explained - "no more gear shift - no clutch" - you push a button I think and it starts - and you put it in Drive and go." "What"? my mom asked, astonished - "no - I don't believe it!" I was never so proud of my dad as he turned and smiled so confidently and reassured her. That how it works - automatic transmission!" Here we were at the height of my dad's success in life - "what a truly wondrous modern age we lived in"  (last quote borrowed from Masters and Commanders the movie)

Shore the Laptop and his friend Sam

                                        Shore the Laptop and his friend Sam

Josh was carefully leaving his house with a rather heavy computer under one arm when he was startled by a sound coming from a laptop on his kitchen table. "Good bye" it said and he jumped. "Good grief", he thought and smiled  as he recognized the sound of the internet browser shutting down, "that's a funny coincidence".

It was a long way down to the Staples store where he hoped he'd find help to fix his desktop. Vermont was sparsely populated way up north where he lived. It was sparsely populated altogether. This was part of its charm, but it also had its drawbacks. So, you had to wait for things to arrive in the mail. You had to drive fairly long distances for what many people were used to being close by. You had to explain to people where you lived in terms of mountains and trees and interstate exits. Sometimes, you had to explain why it was that you lived in the forested "wilderness" to begin with, which sometimes became awkward.

There weren't that many people in the parking lot on this weekday  afternoon. "How can I help you?", the technician asked. The screen lit up and "safe mode" was selected. Soon, the diagnosis was complete. "I can fix the software problems for $129.00 and any hardware problems to for $159.00." This wasn't that much money actually and Josh was relieved. After all, he wasn't  going to have to purchase a new one - not for a while at least. He watched some customers walking around, looked at the display of new computers and asked about them. There were many store employees, in their red shirts and black trousers, darting here and there too. Finally, the time came to sign the contract and pay the fee. It bothered him to have to pay in advance. It bothered him more to have to write down his password. It was like being forced to give up secret family information. He'd never been asked to do this before.

 The technician kept talking and Josh finally decided to take his computer, cancel the order, and leave the store. He asked for  the papers, that had his password printed on them, back, but the technician told him he'd shred them and Josh could watch. The machine was padlocked. "What in the world was this?", he thought and watched the papers going in the shredder. "What's the difference", Josh thought., he knows the password anyhow." It was another strange experience, just like the "good bye" when leaving his house. He wondered if he'd been getting enough sleep or whether he was hungry. He didn't like to have to drive all the way back home without the repair at least in progress. Nothing had happened and it was at least an hour on the interstate to get here.

Josh had plenty of time to think on the way back. He was still stuck in the loss of his parents decades ago. It was natural. It should have shifted to the past after his first marriage and birth of his son, but it didn't. It just hung  there like an old barn that needed painting.

It had been a long day and after a quick dinner and shower, Josh was fast asleep, miles of roads he had driven going by in his dreams. He was awaken by the sound of someone speaking. "We're having a very difficult time correcting the startup sequence." "Who's that?" Josh asked, startled. "Sam", came the reply. "Sam" was the name Josh had given his computer. "I'm having a hard time too Sam. I need some sleep. It was a rough day for me." "You can't sleep on the job!", a voice from the computer stated, matter of factly. Josh fell off to sleep...

It was early in the morning  and Josh got out of bed and decided to try to start his computer on a hunch. It started and quickly went into "setup".  "Good grief" thought Josh - I wonder what's going on?

Going on? "Going on", you ask? About twelve thousand miles away in a small superb in Indonesia  something was going on alright. Jaqui Pnobing, a young man with an extreme interest in high tech had landed a job with a major Asian internet concern that employed him to troubleshoot problems for their customers. Jaqui was runnng - phsically running - all over his little community trying desperately to find one of his techie friends to help him interpret a new table of diagnostic data that had him totally flumoxed!!

                                                              Bora Bora

.

 Dennis had lived up in northern New England for close to nine years now. The adventure of three feet of snow and minus thirty degrees had worn off completely.  Now, he craved warm sandy beaches, maybe in the South Pacific – wherever that was.

Mona worked in an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. She did mostly waitress work, but was learning how to cook. Luigi, the owner and cook, needed someone to listen to him in the kitchen. Everyone else who worked there was in his family and they already knew how to cook. “Lasagna – you think it’s just noodles and tomato sauce huh?” – and he’d smile his smile like he knew something you didn’t. “If this was a true, nobody ever come to this a place.”  Then he’d explain about the spices and the history of the orient and how India was the spice capitol of the world – things that Mona totally didn’t care about and certainly didn’t impress her – but she listened any way and smiled. He loved that – the way she smiled and the idea that he was sharing ancient secrets about tomato sauce. Actually, tomatoes, as well as most of the spices he used came from Mexico and parts of South America, but who cared. Luigi’s tomato sauce was the best in the Mission – and everybody knew that.

You could look out front across tables and chairs under the awning and watch the sunlight rippling across the waves on the bay. It wouldn’t be long and both Mona and Dennis would be watching the sunlight rippling across the ocean from a café in Bora Bora.

Can it be that two persons from different places entirely, watching a travel commercial on TV at the same time, share a psychic moment where their minds meet and something fine and almost holy is generated by this event? Probably not, but in this case, both Mona and Dennis were eating spaghetti with just the right amount of garlic sauce to create the necessary magic. Simultaneously and at the words – “Bora Bora is the place for the both of you” – it happened. The chord was struck and the rest was just following the music to the magic island paradise.

“What!” her mother was in panic mode. “What could you possibly want in Bora Bora?” Mora felt 

defensive, even though she didn’t really have a sensible answer. “Mom, the world is a different place today.”

“What –  in fact -  could she possibly want in Bora Bora?”  Mona thought hard about this. What did she actually expect to find there?  This was to be a central moment in this adventure – not a little thing either. After all, what were the American colonists really after? For that matter, the West India  Company – the Gold Rush -  the Roman Empire – Miami?   An easier life?  Less blisters? Indoor plumbing?  Romance? - The answer would appear while lying on the white sands of the Bora Bora beach.

Mona thought of  the adventure, meeting new people, warm white sands, and the young fellow in the commercial. Soon she would be standing at the table of such a young man and  taking his order for dinner.

Dennis sat in a Tahitian Hut with a martini, a flowered shirt, and a straw hat of all things - and he spoke to the waitress - "What's good for dinner?"  "It's all good sir - catch of the day is always excellent - Mahi Mahi - marinated in french dressing is the chef's special - the lobster is great". Mona went down the list of what most customers enjoyed. She looked down at his American tourist shirt  and smiled.  Dennis looked up. "I'll have the lobster, baked potato and the salad." He watched Mona as she wrote down his order. She looked just like an American despite her sarong and large ear rings. The only thing missing was her name tag. 

The transporter

It had taken way too much time to get even the recognition ping off the darned receiver. Josh simply didn't have time to spare so he cancelled the stand by. "The heck with it", he thought, "we'll come back later". "Just think about it. Four hundred dollars for a one inch pin - a stinking little pin", he said out loud so Janet would hear. "It's not the pin. It's the distance of the transport. At least the pin will be right, otherwise the whole thing might not even work", she answered. Josh had been trying to repair a "workstyle printer copier" he'd installed on his automatic reply line - a setup that allowed customers to pull up his company's electronic messaging sign and order and receive working units according to easy choice options - and pay and receive the units within virtually seconds. It was hard and costly to set up, but it brought in thousands of dollars a day on average - when it was up and running. His problem at the moment was a little pin that aligned an optional design picture to a cutter that actually manufactured a part - well - a facsimile of a part that was transported electronically to another receiver that a customer, presumably, used.

Customers, by the way, that might be located light years - actually light years - away from his business location!