Two tales from the digital age

#1
The paper going to $1.31 finished it. It wasn’t the extra 6 cents, finally; it was the inconvenience of dealing with the change. $1.31?! What kind of price is that? How does one keep enough change on hand?

There have been lots of other irritants, of course: the days the paper just simply didn’t show up, or the fact that one cannot get a Globe delivered here in Campbell River, or the fact that sometimes, if I was a bit later than usual on a day when there had just been some significant news event, they’d sold out by the time I arrived.

Nonetheless, it’s a rupture. For more years than I care to recall we’ve been going to the local Mac’s every morning to pick up the Globe. These days I’m such a regular, they have a running joke about it as I scan the paper and put my money on the counter: “Your cheque is in the mail!”

But I’ve had it, and that chapter is over, even though I’m going to miss the walk first thing in the morning, before breakfast – before coffee even – rain or shine.

It doesn’t hurt that an on-line subscription is less than half the price of the paper version, or that I can reduce my recyclable paper volume by about three-quarters, or that I’m guaranteed a paper unless the power is off or my high-speed provider is off-line. (This, incidentally, is so rare an occurrence that I can’t clearly recall the last time it happened.)

My change pot is about to revert to being a coffee mug.

And I’m going to spend even more time behind my computer, which makes today’s Page 47 headline and story, “Computer work may hurt your eyes, but not your eyesight” more than usually comforting!


#2
As my favourite columnist, John Doyle, might say, “The CBC? Don’t get me started!”

Of course, he’d be talking about TV, and I pretty much gave up on that years ago. But radio? Sandy and I have been loyal CBC radio addicts since before we were married, which would make our allegiance very long-term.

Over the years we’ve had our differences with the CBC. We used to say that in the whole of Campbell River only Tom Barnett had a thicker file of correspondence with them. Mostly, this was (for us and for Tom) about the appallingly-bad AM service. The reception for 690 AM was, when we arrived in Campbell River in 1973 (and continues to be) impossible much of the time, especially from dusk to dawn. Then we got a pair of FM repeaters, a choice of 92.5 or 104.5! And that worked splendidly.

Until those became repeaters for the new Victoria station, which we tried, but never embraced. (I mean, come on! Give up Stephen Quinn or Rick Clough? Traffic slowing over the Johnson Street Bridge over the drama unfolding on the Patullo or the Port Mann? Give me a break!)

So we reverted to the impossible 690AM when we could, and, because we had cable by then, turned to Radio 2 when we couldn’t.

Well, we all know what happened to Radio 2. The short version of this story is that I sent them another sample of my eloquence and biting wit, and we haven’t listened to it since.

About the same time the CBC asked for and received permission to move 690AM to the FM band. Apparently the AM will still be available, but we all know it’s old technology and won’t be maintained, so this was very bad news.

And then we discovered digital streaming, which provides perfect CBC Vancouver on demand.

CBC: all is forgiven.

Until the next time.