Tribesmen in Nike Shorts (The Diner on the Hill part 2)

My last few blogs might leave someone who didn't know me with the false impression that I am in some way anti-technology. I shovel my driveway, I got pissed off at a local diner for offering wireless internet, I harass NASA about their plans in space, and I hate popular new music for the most part. As I began thinking about his post, I realized that here I am again bad mouthing the spread of technology. Here goes:

Have you ever watched a really amazing documentary on some Brazilian tribe who hunts monkeys and drinks hallucinogenic frog oils for their religious rituals, only to become really disgusted with the world when the camera grazes some clay-lipped native wearing a pair of neon Nike biking shorts? This has happened to me on several occasions, and it always leaves me with a bitter sense that maybe the world has been tamed by technology such as spandex and telecommunications. This was very much my discomfort with the recent addition of WiFi at a local diner which needs no such technology to thrive in the community.

This evening, after a lengthy debate on the subject of dinner, Tia sent me to the little store up the road for some sandwiches. The store (which I will leave un-named), is quintessential Maine convenience. Beer, smokes, gas, snacks, ice, and night crawlers. They offer a selection of nearly a dozen beef jerky’s, and on any given day the friendly owner will chat your ear off about any local or international subject.

This evening, as I pulled up into the snowy mess of a parking lot, a local snow-mobiler filled his machine at the pump. I walked in and talked with the owner as he pulled the sandwiches from the oven. His conversation unusually tame that time of night, I paid for the goods while casting a dreamy eye over the assortment of beef jerky. As I was walking out, I caught a split second glimpse of his two kids behind the counter. The 5 or 6 year old boys were dressed like Superman, perched blankly over a screen playing that dumb new Disney flick about super heroes... yup, you guessed it! It was a fucking laptop!! With a DVD drive no less! No one is exempt of technology's plan, not the kids, not the hicks, nobody.