I took an easy morning run today, slow and self-indulgent, as my legs were stiff and slow. Then home for coffee and hot breakfast, and — as I sat down to eat breakfast — I check for messages and email. And what a morning it was!
Last week, Lucy Bellwood’s Tumblr page led me to a corner of the internet got excited about ‘driving a car’ along roads by manipulating Google Maps, and had a particular frisson of interest about the radio station WBOR, such that the drivers decided to head to the station at Coles Tower, Bowdoin College. Now, almost fifty years ago I had a radio show on WBOR when it was little more than a room with a record library and a studio on the first floor (US: second floor) of the Moulton Union, and when I was a child (even longer ago) my family lived in a house on 9 South Street, which lot is now a car park. I’d have left a comment to that effect if Tumblr were that sort of operation, but since it’s not I sent a wee email to Lucy Bellwood to note the way this whimsical Net event intersected with my own past life. Well, this morning I opened my email and saw an answer from her with kind words about my persistent running and blogging (Hi, Lucy!).
After I received my email, I glanced at my messaging apps, and there my undergrad roommate Matt was asking about a colourful excursion we and some friends had undertaken back in the olden days. Every now and then Matt and I check in with one another about music, since he was a tremendous influence on my taste during that period in one’s life where enthusiasms and dislikes, once formed, easily become lifelong allegiances. Splendid to hear from Matt this morning, when Lucy and I corresponded about Bowdoin’s radio station.
And finally, I heard from our friend John, a lawyer who (bless him!) helped me out with the legal fallout of a moving violation (it was twilight, it had rained, the road rose and curved, and I didn’t see a crosswalk in which pedestrians had started to walk). He reminded me of the details I needed to know, and caught me up on recent developments with his wife and son. We miss them lots, and Margaret and I were thrilled to hear how they’re doing.
Amaing morning. The internet — it’s not all bad.