Off the net... sort of

So I'm on vacation at my brother-in-law's 20-acre ranch, 50 miles from Orlando. It's a long way to anything (10 miles to McDonald's, 40 miles to Wal-Mart, who knows how far to Starbucks), and the only Internet is AOL dial-up—so I'm being forced not to do any work for ten days. My laptop is just a big, electricity-sucking solitaire game at this point. And my cell phone costs a dollar a minute back to California. (For some reason they get terrific cellular reception out here.) And everyone stays in after 5:00 because the mosquitos come out at dusk.

So don't worry if you don't hear from me. I'll be back when I've washed the meadow muffins off my sneakers...