Prime Numbers

B.C. Comic courtesy of Houston Chronicle ( click on comic to enlarge )

It’s Friday morning and I’m sitting around waiting for the computer wizard repairman to show up. He’s supposed to be here between 9 and 11 to make the wireless cable modem work so I don’t have to go upstairs and access the internet via my daughter’s computer. I find myself avoiding the internet because it’s so awkward, the way my daughter has all her computer gadgets set up. I like to read so many news sources and blogs, comment or come up with my own blog and that has not been happening.

I read the comics this morning; part of my daily routine, and came across one that I could share. Actually, it made me think of my friend Tony, Red Mind in a Blue State, and so I scanned and cropped it for him. He must be very busy because I haven’t seen a post from him in quite a while; looking forward to his Friday Quickies has become as much a habit as reading the comics each morning.

Time Warner/Road Runner put me on hold for thirty minutes while I was attempting to verify the scheduled appointment. According to their records the appointment for sometime between 10 and 11am; so what’s another hour wasted as long as the job gets done? I had to punch a number each time, “For English push 1”, “If this is for new television, telephone or high speed internet push 1, for downgrading service push 2, for a chance to date Britney Spears push 3”, and so on until I finally got into a loop that kept telling me to hold because all of the human beings were currently assisting other customers.

I learned all about Prime Numbers from the movie Contact; well, actually, I heard about them before that and just never considered them all that relevant to everyday life as a locksmith. I deal with key codes; depth of cut and their respective spaces along the blade of a specific key blank in order to obtain a factory cut key which will operate when inserted into a keyhole. Numbers are numbers until they are assigned meaning and so calling one Prime while all the others are relegated into some other order; well, that just isn’t the American Way of doing things. I’m thinking ACLU about now and how to rectify wholesale discrimination of minority numbers.

I tried to call the 1-800 number listed for the folks who build and service the camper shell on my service truck. I was driving down the freeway and happened to see it on the back of another vehicle. I must have punched in one digit incorrectly while attempting to travel within the lane markers; the provocative female voice on the other end asked for my Master Card number, “ To talk with Bridgett – push 1, Noel – push 2, for Yolanda – push 3 ...,”

The repairman just finished; took all of 5 minutes to install the proper driver from a CD, a CD that should have been given us at the time the wireless system was installed. I had him burn me a copy so that the next time it happens, not if, when, I can fetch the disk and install the drivers. I just checked my email and there were only 144 new ones along with a message telling me to update my Anti-Virus program, now that’s important. .