Miracles of Modern Technology

On Valentine’s Day, I sent my father an email with a link to an article in the online local paper near his house, about the reopening of a semi-major road that had been closed since Hurricane Irene. He doesn’t actually “do” email, though, and he wasn’t in his office anyway, so his secretary printed the email, added a handwritten note that she’d been “unable to open the attachment” (which wasn’t an attachment, it was a URL), and faxed the piece of paper to the home of the person with whom my father was then staying.

My father picked up the now cryptic fax, cryptic because the original email had been all about the URL, and the linked-to article wasn't included, and you can’t click a URL on a piece of paper, you need those glowing bits and bytes. He scribbled a question mark next to my name, and put the fax in an envelope. This envelope then went home with him, two states away, where he added a stamp and dropped it at the post office.

It arrived in my mailbox yesterday.

Did you get that?

• Email from A to B.
• Fax from B to C.
• Envelope transported from C to D.
• Envelope mailed from D to A.

Next time a bridge reopens, I’m going to call him. If nothing else, it’ll be quicker.