THIS AND THAT

1.  The global village:  At about 5:45 a.m., I lost my Internet connection.  At 5:15, when I got up, it was fine, and I even exchanged an email with someone.  Then it disappeared.  I did what I have been schooled to do -- I unplugged my router, waited thirty seconds, and plugged it back in -- no good.  I restarted my computer.  Also no good.  I checked the TV and telephone landline, which come in a package with the Internet from Time Warner Cable, and they were fine.  I tried to get on the Internet with my cell phone -- no luck.  So I went for my early morning walk, figuring that I might have to drive down the street to the TWC office and arrange for a service call.  I figured I could get on my blog at the Starbuck's across the street for long enough to post a notice that I had been temporarily silenced.  When I came back from my walk and had made the bed, showered, and dressed, I decided to try it one more time before having breakfast.  Bingo.  I was back.  I shrugged my shoulders, figured it was some local glitch, and went on surfing.

Little did I know.  When I surfed over to the Huffington Post a few minutes ago, I found the following headline:  "Time Warner Cable is Down Around the Country.  Twitter Reacts Accordingly."

I found it comforting to discover that my little problem was being shared by scores of millions of Americans, if not more.  It almost made be wish I did Twitter.  Well, maybe not.

2.  One-upped:  I told my duet partner yesterday, when we were playing Mozart's K423, that my wife and I have taken to feeding the Muscovy Duck that has suddenly and unaccountably shown up at the pond near Meadowmont Village.  [It is a male, but I call him Sonia, in honor of Peter and the Wolf.]  She replied that she and her husband have half a dozen deer or more who come regularly to their back yard and whom they feed with bags of corn.  The does and their fawns come and feed and then lie down for a while quite near their back door.  Sigh.  There is always someone with a better story.