Wireless Internet

This summer has afforded me the opportunity for much travel. I went to Michigan for two weeks and did not take my laptop. I tried to use my sons' dial up service on his computer, but had much better success when he and I took his laptop to a coffee shop with wireless internet service. Then, Kim came up during week two of my visit with his laptop, we could visit the local coffee shop and check email through "wireless internet".

For the past 3 days I have been visiting my cousin who lives in Ft. Worth. Her fairly new neighborhood does not have cable and they do not have wireless internet, so they only have the dial up internet service. While I had my laptop with me, I could not log onto their system because I did not have a phone number at my access. However, while trying to figure out the system, I noticed that I had an internet connection and it was not from my cousin's connection. I was picking up on someone's wireless internet in the neighborhood. Wow! Remarkable! I began to whisper, "I have a connection on your Neighbor A's wireless internet." I was afraid that the internet cops were listening in and I'd be caught. Actually, there were two wireless connections in the neighborhood. Neighbor B was a bit smarter and had a blocker with a password. So, no connection with him. Neighbor A became my secret friend with whom I "shared" his connection. I was most appreciative of his generosity.

At the present I am sitting in the Midland Community Theater backstage area where they have...you guessed it...wireless internet. I had resigned myself to just sitting in the lobby of this theater while Kim attended a board meeting of the Texas Non-profit Theater group of which we are members. I came in armed with my laptop and a book to read in case access to wireless was not available. Upon arriving in the building, I was summoned to the board meeting room by Kim where there were refreshments. After I settled in my chair preparing to either type a story using my laptop or read my book, Kim asked if this school had a wireless connection. A person said they did and kindly escorted me to this (very cold, brrr!!) room where I am happily typing this post and checking email.

I just love this connection to my world of internet friends and websites. It is a miracle that, with my technical ignorance, I am previledged to access this cyberworld almost anywhere.

So, who do I thank for this technilogical gift? Bill Gates? I don't know. But for now I want to thank my husband, Kim, for introducing me to computers and the WWW and also to my dear brother in law for passing this exceptional Apple laptop on to me. This is the best toy with which I have ever had to play and work.