Wednesday, December 5, 2007

It's Christmas Time, In the Country...





My friend Joni the Pony, a wonderful graphic artist in her own right, directed me to this website where I can have Giclee prints made of my work, and pick the mattes and frames right online. This would be an artist's dream if it weren't for one thing: DIALUP.


I have an equine art gallery started on the Imagekind site, but only four images. I intend to do canine and feline galleries too. It's time to get serious, make a CD of all my best images, and go to a friend's house who has high speed! On the occasions when I do this, it's pretty depressing to think how many hours I have spent sitting at my home PC, watching little green dashes crawl across the box.



Time's a-wastin' though as the countdown begins, and the shoppers rush home with their treasures.


I live seven miles from the nearest gas station. The farm sits way back on a half mile driveway, behind other property, not visible from the main (dirt) road. There are rumors that Livingston County will be getting free high speed internet next year! Hmmm... Wonder how long it will take them to bring it back here! Cable? Forget it! I looked into a satellite dish, but it's too costly.



Don't get me wrong. Country living is the way to go. Clifford and the dogs can roam around loose without me having to worry about traffic. I don't even get traffic noise. Deer come up the hill all the time. Maggie the Redtail Hawk still frequents the breezes above the pastures. Last year a kestrel made a nest in my barn. She raised four babies and taught them to fly screeching over the back field. It was wonderful.



Inconveniences like dialup are the price I pay for these experiences.


Meanwhile, the dog breed Christmas ornaments are selling like gangbusters. I have over 165 ornament designs and keep adding new ones all the time. But when I think back about all that downloading on dialup, it boggles my mind.


Joni suggested getting a laptop computer and going to a local coffeeshop and loading stuff there. That is a great idea -- but who can afford a new laptop?!



Argh.


I wonder how long it will be before dialup is completely obsolete. I'm counting the days like they're little green dashes.

1 comment:

Melissa Markham said...

Hi Nancy! I appreciate the link and will be linking to your blog too. BTW, I too long for the day of world wide high speed connection! We have satellite, but it is only slightly better than dial up and if the weather is bad or if we have downloaded more than we are allowed, we are either slowed to a crawl or we have no service at all. Yikes!