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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

 

Don't show the donkey part of the work

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We were sitting in a coffee shop when this guy walked in. He was carrying a laptop case. It was hot. He face was sweating. He sat at the table next to us. When the waitress came up to him to take his order the only thing he wanted was a glass of water. Not mineral water, tap water.

He place the laptop case on the table and opened one of the pockets. He peeked inside to make sure t was there and then closed it again. He was sweating. His face was dripping. He wiped his face with his hards. Once the waitress came back with the water he gulped it all in one long sip. He then opened that pocket again, peeked inside making sure IT was there and then closed it again.

I was following his every move. He wiped the sweat off his face yet again. I then got a call and turned to take out my cellular phone from my hand bag. He disappeared. I asked my friends if they had notice the strange guy that was just sitting at the neighboring table. No one notice he was there and no one felt when he was gone. I was looking to see if he had left something around and could not see anything obivious. I began describing to my friends what I had just seen. We decided to check the neighboring table for anything conspicuous. There was nothing there. Not a thing.

Not a few minutes go by and this guy comes back, still carring the laptop case, his face still sweating. He sits at the neighboring table again. I point him out to my friends. He clears the sweat from his face and opens the that pocket again. This time he takes it out. It was the laptop electical cord. He then takes out the laptop.

He did not seem like a computer guru to me, by the way he was typing (he was not typying two hundred words a minute that was for sure, ten is more like it). He was looking at something. Concentrating. What laptop is this? An HP.

Suddnenly his friend shows up, he too carrying a laptop case. He too takes out his laptop, and IBM thinkpad. The waitress come up to them and take an order. This time a real one.

The moral of this story
1. You can never be too careful - better safe than sorry
2. Looks can be deceiving
3. Don't show the donkey part of the work - with only some parts of the puzzle, our imagination can take us to a multitude of places.

We all laughed at this. I am gald it ended this way.

tags: memories & short stories / don't show the donkey part of the work

Monday, August 21, 2006

 

A heaven of stairways

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When we get old, the last thing we want to do is to climb stairs. In our teens, we use stairs as a good cadio-vascular sport, to get in shape. What is fascinating is how kids love stairs. Going up and down the stairs can keep them busy for a quite a while.

When we were in Italy, I was amazed to see little kids just having a ball walking those slopes, rolling down the hill and climbing a maltitude of stairs. Whether it was up or down just did not matter. It is quite a good exercise for parents as well. Pushing a stroller with a 30 pound todler, the stroller probably weighs another 10 pounds, and of course you have to put something in or on the stroller: water, souvaniers, dipers. It could come to 45 pounds just like that... and push.

Those hill towns of Umbria, Italy sure are lovely. They are very old and some are very well preserved. They are also very slopey. You cannot get that using your treadmill, that is for sure. No wonder those 80 year-olds live that long, the great fresh air along with the exercise keeps them fit.

Some of the cities have escalators / moving stairs that could take you from the parking lot up to one of the main streets.

The main question remains: how did they ever manage to get all those rocks for the buildings and the fortresses in the 15th century and for so many cities. This is, my friends, a mystery to me. It's definately worth a visit.

tags: memories & short stories / a heaven of stairways

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