I woke to the shortest day of the year. "Well not the shortest day" the
radio announcer corrected himself, but the day when the sun shines the least
during the period demarcated by tradition and scientific calculation as a
'day'. Not that I'll see much of it! My day is lit mostly by the ghostly,
slightly wobbly light from my computer monitor- all 19 inches of it! I'm
trying to look on the bright side of it, but the Dark Side is too strong
today - much in anger in me, like my father - at least there is a long night
to warm the limbs by a fire, spin a yarn or write a poem by candle light, or
dream. Or, most probably, I'll bathe all 'night' under the cathode ray,
beaming in the internet @ 56bps.

The day never ceases at 56,000 bits per second.

By Max Phillips

copyright © the author, 2000