Tuesday, July 12, 2011

In Which This Blogger Goes To The Beach...

....and takes off for a few days, for some sun and fun on the Jersey Shore.  Need to recharge the batteries a bit, and a blazing week on the beaches of the OC (in New Jersey, that's what we call Ocean County) should do the trick. Although I think I might actually be in Cape May County, but that's just nitpicking...



Should be back by Friday.  Maybe Saturday, depends on how much fun I am having.  In the meantime, here's hoping it is...hot, "Jersey-style":




So I'm signing off, so to speak - for a short space of time, anyway.  Which always makes me feel a bit forlorn.  I leave you with this random thought, perhaps more recognizable if you're a tad older, and you remember TV or radio stations "signing off" for the night before going dark:

Thinking about signing off, the listener also could have a curious feeling, too. He/she could be listening to a human voice and feel a kind of connection back then. Announcers were supposed to talk in a relaxed, informal and friendly manner, unlike what you hear on today's radio. You felt as if you were being talked to, not being talked at.

When you heard the sign-off, there was a feeling of disconnection with that person who had been sharing something with you. At the end of sign-off, there would be a brief moment when the sound was over, but the transmitter was still on. Then the transmitter would go off, and the hiss of and open frequency would be heard along with a background scramble of distant stations still broadcasting. The connection was severed, leaving a moment or two of continuation of thought and feeling....

So, for a short while...