So we chatted. I had to interupt for dad duty, so we really had two chats. The second one continued down a Buddy List, cute picture sharing, email editting, technical support desk kind-of path.

And I saved the text of the chat.

I got all kinds of ideas from the first, pre-baby-leave chat. Here's another way to interview someone, loved one or other interesting person, and have a record of it. I guess you can do the same thing with phone-recorded interview, but on-line chat seems to give you a moment to think and compose a question. And to answer in pieces. And embelishments. And there was the repeat realization of how cock-eyed on-line chats are. Or mine are. The threads or themes or details in a chat seem to always need rearranging to be coherent. It takes some active reading and thinking to respond timely to which ever conversation topic is being finished / added to / ammended.

And I also thought that there was some real-ness in the conversation. And I needed something good to try out my latest boondoggle. So I re-assembled the chat. As a radio play script. And the first ever recording of it. Enjoy.

Click to listen to first recording (417 KB of .WAV format sound). Kinda large download and only first X seconds of poorly acted dialog. I said it was a boondoggle.

son: Hi Mom! What cha up ta?

ma: I'm up to writting to Nancy in Minnesota...what are you up to? Did you have a good weekend? Miles have any game?

son: Just got the kids to bed...Miles after a knee ache...history repeating itself...and am cleaning up. But I had the computer on and saw you 'logged in'....

ma: We took a drive up to the Riverside National Cemetary and then into Fullerton to go to a Memorial Service of one of our old buddies....did that today...

son: An old buddy from the park? or?

ma: It was an old square buddy from LM and Death Valley and Silent Valley...80 year old....

son: Oh. Another one moving on.

ma: One of these days, we'll be moving on too. A gal from the Park here bit the big one last week.

son: Why would the Riverside National Cemetary sound familiar to me?

ma: Was that where Jim Evans was interred??? His son Jerald just got married a couple of weeks ago.

son: The Jim connection was what flashed in my mind, but I don't ever remember going there. Doesn't surprise me. Did we used to go see your father's grave back in the day? I remember driving somewhere and walking down big white halls with plaques and names and dates.

ma: How could you tell that I was on line???

son: I can see when you are on-line by having you on My Buddy List. And now Madeleine is crying, so I'll be back sometime. I have pictures...

(And while I spent my 15 minutes of baby watering sometime...)

ma: About my daddy....he and grandmother are both at All Souls Cemetary in Long Beach....down high white walls.

ma: Bye...

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