I’ve discovered that I can’t, in fact, dial in to Earthlink from
up here in Canada; the local dialup won’t accept my password. So I’ll
keep writing ’em, but they’ll all get uploaded to the server at once when
I get home.

Hanging from the towelbar in the bathroom of my hotel room is a
paper card imploring me to reuse my towels. It’s a water conservation
thing, apparently, and I can readily believe that they are serious about
it. I knew they were serious from the moment I stepped into the shower
this morning.

Don’t get me wrong–it’s an attractive shower. Green marble tiles on the
floor, white marble on the walls, and yards of plate glass, and you could
eat off of it, it’s that clean. The water pressure is no worse than
usual. No, their fiendish plot doesn’t become clear until you step into
the shower, and you realize that there’s no room to move. More than
that, it has one of those shower curtains that like to billow into the
shower and make love to you while you’re trying to wash. This is less
pleasant than it sounds.

The card ends with a fiendish twist of the knife: “Please hang up towels
if you wish to participate in the program–if not, simply leave them on
the floor.” That’s right–if I’m so abandoned as to willingly waste
water, I might as well break my poor mother’s heart by being a slob, too.
I don’t think so.

After the shower, the rest of the day went pretty well: Two tutorials on
Tcl’s XML processing libraries, and some good conversations with other
folks at the conference. I’m back in my room again this evening instead
of being social, which seems a little silly…but there’s a reception
scheduled tomorrow evening, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings there
will be “Birds-of-a-Feather” sessions until nearly midnight. I think I’m
wise to rest while I can.