Once or twice a week, my cell phone emits a trilling beep. It is perhaps the one beeping sound I hear that doesn't annoy or confuse me, as it is the ringtone I assigned to the numbers that calls get routed through from the Middle East. (My best friend is there as a contractor.)

A few calls ago, he said: "The lag is killer."
I replied: "Yeah, it's like voice chat over the Internet in 1998."

We might catch each other in Colorado in June. It would be nice to hear his voice without the tired rasp of his late night during my midday.