This rusting snail keeps plants on our balcony company and puts a smile on our faces as we walk by.
44th Century Sweden
Burned and worn-out shells of city blocks with broken streets are all that is left of civilization. No one over 50 can be seen. Going out can be problematic, but my guide, a woman about 30-something, has no problem maneuvering the landscape. She takes me to where she lives through a series of broken-out walls past other squatters who are living with the best shelter they can find, typically on the floors below the long-gone roofs and off the ground floor as a measure of safety. A school has been set up to try to preserve the language, logic, and civility skills, but the situation is precarious due to crimes committed in the effort to get things to trade. One of the students demonstrates, while in the woman’s living space, a glass device with two substances that come together to create a plasma containing electricity that flows over the flat piece of glass inside the glass bottle. Communication between species has changed as two animated lions are going on about something or other while lying on their backs, talking back and forth with one another.
Bathroom Window
Looking through the glass bricks of our bathroom window facing west.
Going to the Movies
Today, we saw House of Flying Daggers from the same guy who made Hero, Zhang Yimou. Flying Daggers did not come close to having such an engaging story, relying too much on the atmosphere instead of the characters. The time spent watching this movie was not time well spent.
Skyping
About a year ago, I installed Skype but had no one to talk to. Today, I use it to talk with Michael Geesmann in Berlin, Germany, and Caroline uses Skype Out to talk with her mom in Frankfurt, Germany. Michael is an old friend from Frankfurt who now makes a living working out of his apartment selling various small gift items on eBay. Since last September Michael and I have talked for free for a total of many hours. Another old friend, Olaf Finkbeiner, is also using Skype but he is rarely available. Using Skype Out Caroline has talked with her mom for about a dozen hours with a cost of only .02 cents per minute. Voice over I.P. or VOIP is a dream on broadband, but using Skype Out to call our friend Jay Patel in Bombay, India, on his cell phone hasn’t worked out yet; the connection is far too noisy and impossible even to establish anything resembling a conversation. Having a chat window open while at the same time talking is the best of both worlds – telecom and the internet; as we talk, we send links back and forth, introducing each other to various websites.
Grocery Store
Food City is a local market aimed primarily at Hispanic shoppers. Caroline and I love this store as the prices can be as much as 70% cheaper than Albertson’s or the other large chain grocers. In addition, the shoppers are friendlier, and the choices for ethnic cooking introducing us to new food items have been wonderful.