Sunday untangles
Watt had promised Tingles several months ago to take her to the library to meet Bic. Finally, they both had a free Sunday afternoon, so off they went to the public library.
Bic looked up to see Watt at the door with a woman dressed in a colourful outfit.
Watt said, hello Bic, this is Tingles, the best audio engineer I know.
Hello Bic, nice to meet you, said Tingles.
Bic was a bit surprized and stood up in a respectful manner and said, hello Tingles, hello Watt.
Bic gestured for them sit and as Tingles sat down, Watt said, I will be back soon and disappeared.
Tingles said with a big smile, Bawd told me that I am a part owner of this library and I should come here to inspect my wise investment.
A wise investment you have made, said Bic. The library was once packed with people on Sundays, before the smart phone took over the world.
Tingles said, I often turn my phone off at home and leave it at the door, I do not need to be connected to everything and everybody all the time.
You are safe in here Tingles. The library has become a forgotten tomb. The tomb robbers have not realized there are valuable contents here and probably won’t until the digital world collapses.
Tingles said, I was born into the digital world and if it wasn’t for my Gran, I would have been totally unaware that a pre-digital world even existed.
Did you have a lot to do with your grandmother, asked Bic.
She raised me, said Tingles, my mother thinks I am her little sister.
Bic said, my parents were elderly. I think it is why I spend most of my life in here. I am not particularly good at the fast competitive life of the so-called real world. Much safer in here, for the likes of me.
Tingles smiled and said, I can understand that. I often wonder how much longer I will be able to survive in the city of the big striders. The work ethic does not bother me, it is all the wasted energy on meaningless nonsense, that wears me down.
There are so many people and they are all trying to avoid each other. Look at me, I am an individual, keep clear, do not come any closer, said Bic.
Tingles responded sarcastically, look at my phone, oh, I have so many contacts, I must keep all of my contacts alive, or, they will forget who I am.
Tingles went on, the untangling of the tangled web of networking in the city of the high striders. I believe, I wish to be a survivor, Bic.
After our brief discussion, Bic, I can see why you have chosen a lost tomb in the city. For me, I will probably go back to the country and live out my life happily in my own head.
Dagge would probably say, that we are a result of children being raised by elderly people, better known as BRBEP syndrome, pronounced barbep syndrome, chuckled Bic.
Tingles let out a definite giggle and said, now there is a tangled-up person, trying to escape from a straight jacket. Poor Dagge, I spend a lot of time encouraging him to relax. Even when he is at his most relaxed state, he is still like a wound-up spring, ready to explode.
Bic said, in a funny way, I envy Dagge, he is on a journey to find himself. I doubt whether most people would even consider such an undertaking, they simply accept everything they are told and don’t even attempt to explore what is between their ears, never alone what is on the planet they exist on.
Bic said, has he told you about his concerns that he is a character in a story.
One of the first things he said to me was, I think I am a character in a story. Tingles let out the laugh that she held in when Dagge told her his suspicions.
Tingles said, I didn’t know whether he was joking, trying to disarm me with something crazy, or he was about to have a nervous breakdown. But, growing up on a commune, gave me a lot of experience in dealing with situations, where, what is being described, does not match with what is actually happening. Reality television is very bland for me Bic.
Bic said, I find it all very interesting. Being someone who has emersed myself in books, I rarely consider the author and mainly concern myself with what I am reading. Some of these books in here are a complete life’s work. Sure, biographies are written; again, there is another author.
Bic, I must admit, after Dagge told me his suspicion, I have thought about it several times. Sometimes it does feel like you are a character in a story and hoping for a good outcome from a kind author, said Tingles.
Tingles added, I mainly read tech journals and avoid certain journalists, who seem to be writing for the uninformed.
Tingles went on, I stopped reading tech blogs a long time ago, because, there are too many contributors who couldn’t possibly know what they are talking about, because they spend all of the time writing blogs. Then, there are the ones who are site hit counters, they keep rehashing the same old same old, trying to drag it out.
Tingles paused and said, maybe I should be like Gran and read for the pleasure of it. I will definitely tell her about Dagge and his author.
Bic said, what does your Gran read Tingles?
Tingles said, Bic, if Gran saw a piece of newspaper in the street, she would pick it up and read it. She reads every bit of wrapping paper before she opens anything. When she is not doing something, she is reading.
Her conversations begin with, “do you know what I read the other day”. She does not have opinions, she has quotes. Tingles said, she is a lot of fun to converse with.
Bic said, she sounds like a wonderful person, Tingles.
Watt came back from where ever and said, are you two okay.
Tingles and Bic said in unison, all good, Watt.
Watt took off again.
Bic said, recently I started having thoughts about going to the country, not to live, only to see it. I have never been out of the city in my life. I wouldn’t know what to do. The only horses I have seen are police horses. I have never seen a snake. It would probably be too much for me.
Tingles said, being a country kid, Bic, the city scared the living daylights out of me for a long time. I do not like the smell of the cars, either.
I had to come to the city to do what I thought I wanted to do with my life. A bit disappointing though, teenage dreams can be difficult to achieve.
Then, you realize that our culture fills children’s minds with pure fantasy. Now, getting up at five to milk the cow, sounds more appealing then, getting up, to go and make pet food jingles.
Gran often goes around singing a song that goes, you don’t know what you’ve got till it has gone.
Bic said, don’t they sell milk in the country?
Of course, but Gran lives on a commune and it is all about self-sufficiency.
Bic said, goodness, I feel like a really ignorant person. I have always known I am, but now, the depth of my ignorance has increased more.
Watt showed up again at the door, with some photo copies in his hand. I am becoming a real retro, he said, doing some research for my grandad, Bongo.
Tingles said, good golly, look at the time, we had better get going Watt.
Tingles turned to Bic and said, we have a very nice place here Bic, I hope I can come again soon.
That would be good, Tingles. See you soon Watt and of course, Tingles.
See you later alligator, said Watt.
Yit decides
Bic thinks Yit is an easy person to get along with. He doesn’t get flustered and he is curious. Bic thinks curiosity is a good trait in anyone.
Hello Bic, I thought it would be a good day to come to the library.
Everyday is a good day here, replied a cheery Bic.
Yit got to the point straight away, Bic, I went and saw my dad and told him all the things I had been learning about the industrial revolution. He said, he was amazed that I was interested.
He said he was a bit worried that I was thinking about something that was not connected to music. Thanks to the library, I could reassure him that there is lots of music made about and by industrial workers.
Bic said, brass community bands were very popular in the British industrial towns and that was before rock and roll.
My dad is a plumber Bic and we started talking about how many similarities there are with what we do. He told me about how he saw things as a tradesman. I told him being a musician, sounds similar.
You do your apprenticeship, then, you really start learning, because you are not being supervised anymore.
He said, as far as he knew, there are no celebrity plumbers, Yit. When you turn on a television, you do not see shows with glamorous plumbers with lots of shiny clothes unblocking a toilet. I told him, there sort is on cable tv, some shows with people doing dirty jobs.
My dad said, I suppose there is some effort to make us shit men look good, hi-vis clothing, we all have to wear that now. No hi-vis, no insurance.
Bic started laughing, isn’t that funny, the entertainment industry dress in sparkle and glitz. The insurance industry demands workers wear hi-vis.
Yit said, Bic, I asked my dad, if the singing business gets too difficult for me to make ends meet, do you think I could become a plumber?
Dad said, if you think you could put up with being a shit man Yit, then, I can’t see any reason why you could transition from singing into a microphone, to singing into a bathroom.
Bic, at this stage, I have no intentions of switching to being a plumber, but it is a good feeling to know that I could do it.
Bic said, people can live without singers, but they would struggle without their toilets and bathrooms. Long live the industrial worker.