The Hobbit Hole VIII - Still round the corner we may meet...

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[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Still round the corner we may meet...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...
• Sixth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...
• Seventh Thread: The Hobbit Hole VII - But not yet weary are our feet...

New verse:

Upon the hearth the fire is red, Beneath the roof there is a bed; But not yet weary are our feet, Still round the corner we may meet A sudden tree or standing stone That none have seen but we alone. Tree and flower and leaf and grass, Let them pass! Let them pass! Hill and water under sky, Pass them by! Pass them by!

Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate, And though we pass them by today, Tomorrow we may come this way And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun. Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe, Let them go! Let them go! Sand and stone and pool and dell, Fare you well! Fare you well!

Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, We’ll wander back to home and bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade! Fire and lamp, and meat and bread, And then to bed! And then to bed!

See also: http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net

Web page for our moot reports and troop support information!

[Fedora]

I imagine there's a lot of Dutch mixed in with the German communities here, though I'd have to check. There's a sorta Amish farm here that recreates 19th-century Wisconsin, called "Old World Wisconsin", which is kinda cool to visit--I suspect it's a lot like rural Pennsylvania once was:

Old World Wisconsin: America's Largest Outdoor Museum of Rural Life

[JenB]

Heh, you know, I'm keeping my eyes open for one of those!

I should be a great date. I'll never want to see the chick-flicks, just whatever movie has the best explosions. I hate dressing up. And I'd much rather go to a bookstore than shopping.

[HairOfTheDog]

Good luck to you! - I have to think you know you'd do fine or you wouldn't have gone for it.

[Fedora]

LOL! I've never tried Amish food, but I bet they can cook! On that link I've mentioned the buildings at the farm have old-fashioned wood-burning stoves where they bake bread--mmmm. . .

[Fedora]

Congrats on the resume response!

[HairOfTheDog]

Sure, we have Amish! Not so many as in Pennsylvania, but we do have them. Many of them in Eastern WA.

My friend Bob's neighbors were Amish but they got kicked out. Not sure why, but Bob thinks they got kicked out because their yard was always a mess.

[JenB]

Or maybe they were the wild Amish youth?

No, seriously, the Amish kids leave home for a year or so to be wild and crazy. They get into trouble... and then usually go home again.

[Fedora]

Prolly doin' tech support for the Amish.... ;~D

LOL! I wonder how they do that? Probably have to send the horse and buggy to get the tech support guy, then when he comes he brings woodworking tools :)

[Fedora]

No, seriously, the Amish kids leave home for a year or so to be wild and crazy. They get into trouble... and then usually go home again.

That happened to an Amish kid my brother knew in high school. Then afterwords they become even more conservative in reaction/repentance.

[JenB]

That's what I understand. I guess they just have to get it out of their systems.

I wouldn't like to be Amish. No computers, no electricity... those dresses, all day every day... and the men all have the same beard.

[Wneighbor]

Troop Support Update

Hello all. Since the last troop support post I have mailed 4 packages and been to the store to buy more goodies in anticipation of resuming packages to Iraq. The 4 I sent with the last items went to Afghanistan and another country on another continent with jungles.

Today, I have packed boxes so far for Corin's nephew (isn't it nephew?) and for Steve. Here are those packages:

I have 3 other boxes pretty much like these mostly packed now, I just needed a few more things to get them full. Well, I got carried away at Sam's and the Dollar Store with "a few" more things and this is what I have in addition to the stuff already packed in the 3 remaining packages.

So, again, we are sending out several really good packages for the troops. I'm sorry there haven't been as many posted lately. Some I package and send and just write about because I'm so buy at work I have less time to make nice posts about the items. But, I have also had a lot less money to spend so there really haven't been near as many packages as there were for a while. At any rate, we are making a nice bunch of packages about every 3 weeks at this point. Thanks for everyone's help!

[Fedora]

I wouldn't like to be Amish. No computers, no electricity... those dresses, all day every day... and the men all have the same beard.

"No phones, no lights, no motorcars/not a single luxury. .." I wouldn't want to be Amish, either. But I do admire their craftsmanship and what they're able to produce without electricity. Those 19th-century houses are really homey, too. I guess the rural aspect of it appeals to me; but I wouldn't want to be without electricity. And I'd hate to wear the same clothes/beard as everyone else. I'd feel like one of the characters in Children of the Corn or something :)

[Rose in RoseBear]

A premature welcome to the wonderful world of tech support!

"Good morning! Thank you for calling Lazy E tech support. My name is Rose. May I have your arbitrary unique device ID, or the other arbitrary unique device ID, both of them nigh-impossible to find for the computer illiterate?"

<male customer, yelling>"I can't get my handheld computer to work! I have to babysit my child, and I've been on the phone thirty minutes, and I need my data!" <male customer begins to weep --- no, I'm not kidding> Why is my life soooo hard?

I just hate it when they cry ... you can't help them when they're distracted by their tears.

[ecurbh]

Thanks! I've actually done tech support before, but have been out of it for a couple years now.

Personally, I prefer dealing with the just plain stoopid rather than the irate/rude/abusive... just don't handle that kind of person well. When I got one of those, my helpfulness tended to decrease in inverse proportion to their rudeness, giving just one-word answers as much as possible.

[HairOfTheDog]

Nicely done WN!

[JenB]

I admire them from a distance. It's good that there are people like the Amish in the world. And even better that I'm not one of them.

[Wneighbor]

I just hate it when they cry ... you can't help them when they're distracted by their tears.

So, is there something about you IT people that just puts you in places where you like to rescue folks? :-)

Hi Rose!

[Rose in RoseBear]

The one who got me was the one who kept dropping the "F-bomb" into the (one-sided) conversation. The first one I didn't have a chance to react to, because she dropped the second one as I drew breath.

"<foul-mouthed female customer>, you'e going to have to stop cussing, or I will disconnect the call."

"Cussing? What cussing? You mean F-bomb? Oh, that's not cussing."

"It is where I come from!"

<foul-mouthed female customer, now grumpy>Oh, all right! <muttering to someone in the room with her> ... stupid ...

[Fedora]

Personally, I prefer dealing with the just plain stoopid rather than the irate/rude/abusive

Agree. I've never done tech support per se but in my experience training people on computers and handling customer calls involving computer issues I definitely prefer stupid to rude. My only complaint with people who are computer-stupid is when the reason they aren't getting something is because they could get it but they're being mentally lazy as a defense mechanism for avoiding anxiety. I've noticed some people expect you to do their thinking for them rather than making an effort to learn it, so when you try to explain something it goes in one ear and out the other, with the result that they keep asking the same question over again and they ask you silly questions that they could figure out for themselves if they took the time to stop panicking and think for a second. And then by the same token if they don't get it they blame you. People like that can be as much of a headache to deal with as rude people.

[Rose in RoseBear]

So, is there something about you IT people that just puts you in places where you like to rescue folks? :-)

<laughing> Nah, we're all know-it-alls who like to show off what we know.