Rest high above the clouds no restrictions, television we bounce 'round the world.

Is it wrong that I judge the clientele of my corner coffee shop by the percentage of Mac's versus PC laptops? At this one, Mac's consistently out number PC's, making it uber cool. Am I some sort of computer racist??

I spent a few days back in Atlanta last week. As usual, I had a great time visiting with friends. This visit ended the longest streak away from home since I moved, almost 2 months. I saw a lot of folks, imbibed a good bit of libation, and had a general great time. My mental health seems to improve when I'm down there. If only a major international airline headquartered in the Atlanta area who was rumored to be hiring dispatchers soon would call me up...

I also spent some time conversing with mom. She has been having some mysterious health issues of late... and no one seems to know what it is. But the parts they checked seem to be in great shape (really, only 30% artery blockage for a 68 year old who smoked for 40 years and was raised on deep south deep fried goodness... good job!)

We talked a little bit about where things have come in her life. For instance I'm sitting here having coffee, a bran bagel, and a banana. All are proudly proclaiming to be organic, which as far as I know means they were raised without human designed chemical additives. Mother, on the other hand, grew up with EVERYTHING being organic, cause that's how it was. They grew all the vegetables, and I'm thinking there was no DDT involved. The meat was fresh from the slaughtered cow or pig, which didn't have any growth hormones injected in them. "Farm fresh" eggs really were farm fresh, and usually brought in that morning.

Today we pay a premium for this type of food. Oh the irony. Of course you could grow it yourself if you have land and time. Figure that's what you did, and grand dad did. Of course having slave labor in the form of 9 children (plus a couple others they raised) helps, but you have to feed them. But there was no daycare, or needing the latest gadgets or fashion. Clothes were made. A trip form Dahlonega to Atlanta was an epic event involving wagons or loading the whole family in the one vehicle... usually a log truck. They may as well been setting off with Odysseus to invade Troy. Today it's an hour and a half on a 4 lane road through a series of never ending outlet stores.

Mom remembers when they got electricity in the house. There was one wire in the kitchen that held a single bulb. Above the bulb were one or two plugs for appliances and what not. Then came the radio. Remember that thing we used to listen to in the car before iPods and CD's? I guess that explains why mom, and the older generation in general, are voracious readers. That's what you had to do at night.

I can proudly proclaim that our family was one of the first in the area to get a television ("this thing will never take off"). It was a huge monstrosity of a thing, a cabinet the size of a large bureau. Seriously, it was massive, and with a screen probably no larger than the laptop screen I'm typing on. Saturday nights, chairs were lined up in the Dowdy house for the kids and neighbors to enjoy the broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry. That's it, one channel, one show.

In contrast, by roughly the same age I had a computer (it was a Commodore 128 but still), cable (only about 50 channels back then... the horror), all kinds of portable electronic paraphenalia, a microwave to cook the food we bought in the grocery store. Mom was impressed with not having to grow her own food (she still does prefer home grown tomatoes form her "garden" or fresh grown veggies), I was impressed when I went into the first supermarket that I could get anything fruit or vegetable from anywhere in the world (what the hell is an eggplant.. an egg isn't a plant!).

Remember that thing we all read about in history class called the space race?? For you younger types, there used to be this country called the Soviet Union who was out to destroy the American way of life. But since going to direct war was akin to suicide, we raced to prove who was better in different ways. One way of proving superiority was to see who could build the bigger rocket and penetrate deeper into the dark recesses of space (hrrmmm, think men were in charge of this one?). SO we launched rockets with radio transmitters and monkeys and dogs and finally people up there. We even went to the moon (allegedly). Mom, I think, believes the moon landing was real, though I got the impression she was skeptical. Her aunts, no way. Which is completely logical. Imagine growing up when the steam locomotive was the most advanced and fasted form of travel. And in the span of a single life time, suddenly we can fly a man 5 times the speed of sound to the moon? No effin way! Actually, the great aunts believed whole heartedly that the launching of these rockets were going to cause the weather to go crazy and crops to fail... maybe she knew something about global warming then?

It's easy for us modern educated people to ridicule such beliefs because we grew up with it as fact. For me, thinking back about 15 years ago and seeing those first cell phones that had a bag you carried around with them and trying to imagine I'd have something like an iPhone and all its mystical powers was crazy talk. Or that you watched too much Star Trek. But there it is, right in front of me.

Or even this internet thing. We all love the interwebs! You wanna look something up, a few buttons pushed and you have everything you ever wanted to know about South African Fruit Trees or any other ridiculous topic. Want to know the weather in Djibouti? We got it (currently 83F, clear, calm winds and 58% humidity). Want to know how the city council race in Boonkoodle Mississippi went? We got it! Who remembers an encyclopedia??? The book ones?? When was the last time you guys picked up a book to do research?

So, now we have the modern world, when a generation ago Paris was an unachievable destination (I've been), Australia was a mythical land (well, true, but I've been a few times), and i can talk to anyone on the planet from anywhere on the planet... well almost anywhere, I don't have T-mobile signal at Jersey's house in New-Nan. But 5 bars on an island in Thailand was the norm.

Kind of makes me think that in 40 years when I look back at the things I grew up with and try to convey to my kids or grandkids (should I ever procreate) how life was before the internet, or when every phone had a wire and you hated calling people with 0 in the number cause you had to twist that rotor all the way around.

Of course we'll be living on the moon. On a side note is anyone disappointed that we don't have the flying cars and moonbases that we were promised by the year 2000???

It was an interesting conversation, and I really should be more into having them. Of course then it turns to the inevitable "is there anyone special..." conversation. Mom seems to want more grandkids. The current ones are too old. Wait till I tell my youngest niece her grandmothers wants a new kid because she's too old now. I'm thinking this conversation should come up Christmas morning.

Otherwise, I'm working on the planning of my trip to Vietnam. (Why is it I always want to say that like the guy from Forrest Gump "Viet-EFFING -NAM!"). Looks likes like New Years in Saigon is in order. I have to work on getting a visa, which is a pain since I have to surrender my passport for 5 days, and that means no jumpseating for 5 days. But I suppose the Lewii are worth it.

I think I've rambled enough. I'll be back in the ATL on Wednesday. Look for me!