Laura's Internet Cafe

I’ve spent a $100 extra some months on cell connections and communications. I have hi speed internet in my office, have paid for wifi hubs, tengointernet for trailer park camping, airport internet and cellphone sticks and cell connections just to be in the ‘net’ and on the ‘grid’ . I ‘need’ to have instant convenient communication. I am on 24/7 call 6 days a week and actually occasionally this year for the first time get paid for this connectivity, not all of it by any means.  It’s thousands a year and the office ‘write off’ portion is only a little.
Everywhere I go these days my phone picks up Shaw. Laura has Shaw cable. The plan was to get Shaw Internet here so we can both use Shaw on the Go around the city.  The big screen TV was a gift from me to her for our mutual entertainment. She got the Shaw. I think I paid for the hook up as I’ve now done for the Wifi.  We’re both using it. It’s operating now. When I called out I was ‘in’ , Laura called back. “I’m a wifi cafe now!”  $50 a month compared to the Tengointernet $40 a week coupled with the other service which worked just great for $10 a month with a $100 hub till computer upgrades made the hub obsolete and the company stopped providing that ‘connectivity’.  With shaw I expect to get rid of everything but the Telus office.  No more cell phone charges for going over the ‘plan’.
“I like when you write here.” Laura said.  She’s so sexy.  I imagine smart sensitive women the world over saying things like that to their gullible egoistic men, “I like when you game on the internet at my place”.  “I like when you read Facebook at my place’.  They reel the men in.  The fact is Laura, like a lot of men loving women, just like to see the guys happy. She’s making me another coffee right now in Laura’s Internet Cafe.  She’s been giving Gilbert treats all morning.  She likes me because I bring my dog over. The guys come to visit.
George is the big blond male cat I got Laura one day at the Pet store. He was on display from the SPCA, like a slave in the window.  Mean bastard. Looked so cute in the window.  Got him home and he shat on the bed and scratched everyone and tried to bite me. He was almost feral a week later, isolating and hiding from us till I forced ‘socialization’ on him pulling him out from his hiding place and barring the under the bed from further escape. The hermit took to the cupboard above the fridge.  Hi rise view.  Basement dwelling causes surliness. His paranoia slowly lifted as he watched from on high and saw that we weren’t eating cats and beating them and doing awful things to him.  Laura’s love its irrisistible. Everyday she cooed and talked and brought him treats. When I came he looked at me like I was some sort of evil monster.  He didn’t know what to make of Gilbert.
Days and weeks and months went by. I gave him tweets every visit.  Gilbert dropped his ball in front of him when George ventured down to the ground.  It wasn’t long before Laura noticed that George was roaming about the place when she wasn’t there. Then there was the time he slept on her bed.
He’s a suck now.  He waits outside the washroom when she has a bath.  He pokes at the ball when Gilbert rolls it to him.  He runs under my feet to get to the perch by the window.  We’ll never know what happened to him before he came to Laura’s but other than a little social distancing you’d never know. He just loves Laura and accepts us.
Laura’s Internet Cafe has it’s regulars.  Laura’s family visits and she’s glad they’ll have the internet to keep in touch with other family.
We’ve become dependent on this connectivity.
I’ve got the family and friends I know in real life. I’ve got some casual acquaintances that I’ve come to know a whole lot better thanks to the internet. Facebook has even introduced me to some strangers who I’ve come to truly enjoy because our values and interests and political and spiritual leanings jive.  I want to meet them in real life some day.  I remember my parents once calling up old neighbours and going for coffee with them. It ’s that kind of thing.
Then there’s the whole ‘internet cafe’ . Another third space beyond the library. It’s a place I ‘ve just loved. I’ve sat at my computer in my home. I ‘ve carried this lap top everywhere a distant cry from my old writing notebook but nonetheless related.
And now here I am, Laura’s Internet Cafe.  The little dog has climbed up on the bed beside me and is leaning against me. I love the feel of his body when he does that, affection.  I don’t like the internet cafe’s much since I’ve got a dog. I don’t like anywhere my dog isn’t welcome.  We don’t go to restaurant’s much as a result.  I always liked to eat at home in front of the tv though there was a time when I had so many dinner parties for dozens and dozens of friends.  Another time of connectivity.  That’s infrequent now. Neither Laura or I have ‘dining rooms’ anymore .
We have had parties in restaurants. That’s what people do a lot in bigger cities like Vancouver.  The little apartments are glorified bed rooms and everything else is outside in the city.  It’s a bit limitted in the winter but the summer with the beaches and parks makes this work well.  There’s winter  third space in the malls.  Old people and young seem content to take up space on the benches meant for resting shoppers. Shoppers don’t rest. They are frenzied consumers so third space seekers are moving into those bench spaces. They’re like the rats and coyotes moving into the rest of the city.  There’s always been the restaurants and cafe’s, but so often they encourage consumption. More and more there are coffeeshops like Europe which simply enjoy ‘regulars’ and get by with that.
Now there’s here.  Laura just brought me some quiche. I ‘m going to stop and eat.  I can upload this immediately.  Next I’ll surf the web and read Facebook seeing if anyone else is looking for a political argument or has a picture of a really cute dog.  Facebook is bipolar that way these days.
It’s snowing outside. I walked Gilbert.  He sniffed the other early risers signs.  A man was out shovelling. A young couple were climbing into their car.  I’d say they were going out for breakfast.  Adventurous in this Winnipeg winter in Vancouver. Schools closed .  Buses unable to get up hills.  Fender benders.  A few inches of snow.  Now it’s a mix of drizzle and snow.  Mild.  Slushy.
It’s nice to be in the warm with Laura. She’s very beautiful.  Gilbert and I are blessed to have such a friend and now I really must get to that Quiche.  I want to follow up on my nephew Graemes adventure in Costa Rica. I can do that in real time thanks to all this connectivity.  I do remember the rotary phone and black and white tv.  The things other people take for granted.  The young don’t know shit.