Hotspot

I need a hotspot.

I promised that I would bring my daughter and a friend to a local pool this afternoon. What the heck, I thought; I'll bring a book, they'll have a good time, sounds like fun. And then I remembered: I promised that I would be available today in case a system upgrade required some help. Sure, I'd said, give me a call if you need to. I'll be at home. I'll keep the beeper on. What could go wrong?

Whoops.

The YMCA pool is about fifteen minutes from home, and about twenty minutes from the office. And while I could bring a laptop -- ours, not the heavy work one -- without any way to connect to the net, that won't do me much good. So I'd have to find some place that I could connect, or evict two dripping girls from their aquatic revels before they were really ready to go.

The local Borders, about five minutes from the Y, advertises that they have T-Mobile connectivity-- I think thats the name -- available. We tried it once, and found out that while they do, they neglected to mention that theres a fee. I don't recall what it was, but when my wife and I found out the cost, that one time that we thought we'd join the cognoscienti and try it out, I remember our reaction: How much?

I need a hotspot.