unarmed in a hostile world...

Ever see the cover of Marty Robbins' album Gunfighter Ballads? It shows him dressed, appropriately, as a cowboy, whipping out a six shooter to send some low-down varmint to the promised land. Now imagine he's there, facing the Dalton Gang or Billy The Kid and he slaps leather and finds he left his trusty shootin' iron on the counter in the bathroom that morning. That's the feeling I had this morning when I got to the office and reached for my trusty Blackberry and all I felt was empty holster. I felt unarmed, disarmed, naked against a hostile world.

I didn't realize how much I had some to rely on my smartphone. It keeps me in text touch with friends and family, delivers the news, lets me read my email in any room in the house or office, lets me take photos and videos and update my Facebooks page; and if I Twittered, it would let me do that too. Once in a while, occasionally, I make a phone call on it. It also tells me the time, temperature, find the closest pub, and I have used to it help me get unlost, believe it or not.

It did all this, wangled its way into my life without remorse or permission. It just did. Now I have to make it through the entire day with surfing the net, getting my news and even making calls the old fashoned way - on my computer. Oh, the horror, the horror.... Might as well live in a cave and watch television by candlelight.