A few days ago, I fell and broke my wrist in several places. Today, I was released from the hospital after a five-day stay and major surgery.
The road ahead, I am told, will include about four months of mending, physical therapy, and learning how to use a text-to-speech converter for writing on my computer. I might have to take another driver's exam to demonstrate proficiency at driving one-handed.
Men plan, and God laughs: I was on track to make 2021 the first year during which I published an issue of the digest every day. I wanted to have a banner year to look back on as I approach my 70th birthday next February, when I was planning on taking a slower pace with both my other activities and the Digest. That change must happen now.
It's probably for the best: as cellular technology and the Internet have become commodified, there's been a lot less interest in the nuts & bolts of the telephone network, and even less in its history. I think most telephone users have come to regard their phones as, at best, a business communications tool, an, at worst, as an electronic leash tying them to their employer 24/7/365.
So it goes, and has gone before: the horseless carriage brought pollution and a transportation monoculture that has saddled our exurban workers with no other practical transportation choices, a cadre of parts-swappers whose only real expertise is in gouging their customers at every turn, and confiscatory taxation. The telecommunications industry, like the auto industry, will have to evolve into something better if it is to survive, but I can't keep chronicling an industry that no longer serves the public.
Suffice to say, I won't be the one-man-band creating almost all the content in the Telecom Digest going forward. I'll remain as the Moderator for now, but the content must, and should, come from the readers.