I kin heah Jeb comin’ from a million miles away - or at least I kin heah his ATV.  I’m standin’ jus’ in from the road when he come out from the cornstalks agrinnin’ ‘n awavin’ like a fool with his dawg, Gopher, runnin’ behind.  He pulls up in fronna me and gits hisself off real stiff ‘n slow ‘n you kin tell he’s really feelin’ the arthritis today - maybe cuz it’s bin a li’l cooler’n usual these past few days.  It ain’t like the ol’ days when we was doin’ this - way back in the fifties.  We was teenagers then but now we’re in what they call the autumn years.  Er sunset years.  Er whatever years.

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Frank liked his new computer.  His son Jimmy bought it for his 65th birthday.  It came fully loaded - and with all the peripherals to boot.  It had a fast CPU and a big flatscreen monitor.  You could listen to music or watch a movie on it, scan pictures, run them off on a nice colour printer, record your voice, chat on the webcam.  It was a real beauty.  Frank was having fun learning how to use it.  And of course the most important thing was the fast internet connection.  Jimmy had said there was no point in having a good computer if you don’t have a fast internet connection.  They had an argument about which way to go - coax or dsl.  Jimmy was all for dsl.  But Frank’s buddy named Sam (who lived next door) had signed up for coax and said there was no comparison.  The clincher came when Jimmy admitted he had shares in the phone company.  There’s nothing like a conflict of interest to settle an argument.  So there Frank was with his beauty of a computer and his fast internet connection spending all his spare time sitting in front of the glowing screen and clicking his way to a repetitive strain injury.

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