Bad things always seem to happen when you are no position to do a thing about them. Say, perhaps, 8000 feet above sea level nestled in the mountain pines for a little ski vacation. With no cell towers within any kind of reach, I felt severely cut off from civiliziation. At least, cut off from "the grid" - SMS text messaging and twitter which is about as much contact I have with civilization these days. It was in this state of incapacitation I recieved a text message that slipped through a crack in the trees. My grandmother, back home in England, had been taken suddenly and seriously ill. Don't you love those brief and vague snippets of info, that may as well have come through in morse code. "Dot dot dot dash dash. House gone. Fire. tornado. Send info later." So, desperately I try to reply to the message to confirm I am now in the know, but as luck would have it the crack in the trees mysteriously closed and no message came or went for the rest of the weekend. Y...
"He's plugged on, tuned in and dropped out..."