Text 32235, 49 rader
Skriven 2016-04-08 10:39:05 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 32226 av Gregory Deyss (1:267/150)
Ärende: Re: Bashing Dictators
=============================
Greg,
 
GD>WD> BTW, you do know how I'm spending 1/3 of the year, including
GD>WD> intercontinental phone calls at 3am this morning, right?
GD> I did not know that Ward, whats the cost of this?
GD> It would be possible to set up a cheaper way of doing this over the
GD> internet.
 
Well, you don't know the whole story. Very short.
 
In 1972, as the result of a boyhood dram, I got into an international camp
counselor exchange program which landed me at a BSA camp in Montana. Some will
find it ridiculous, but for me it opened the world ... the challenges, the
learning curve, the experiences, the friendships ... difficult to describe. But
it brought me a career, a girlfriend which is now still my wife after 40+
years, we had kids, they went into scouting, I have a granddaughter and she is
into scouting too. Then in 1978 real life it me.
 
When I retired years ago, I was invited to come back as a voluteer and it
stuck. So now I am the boating director at Camp Melita Island BSA, an actual
island on Flathead Lake in Montana. It's a place created by the gods.
 
The cost? Summer camp is covered by the BSA, I refuse to be paid (too difficult
to get a work permit, social security card, that stuff) so they pay my
transportation, room and board. I've got no cost for the rest of my summer
except during weekends a steak or pizza and a beer. There's also pre-camp
travel in Feb/Mar and post-camp Sep/Oct.
 
Internet phoning indeed would be way more cost advantageous, however you need
to know Montana. There is no interner everywhere, not even a MiFi is a
universal solution as there's no universal cellphone coverage.
 
So I've got a deal with an operator here who buys excess bulk-capacity on large
international trunk lines and resells them at a freaction of the cost.
Therefore after midnight here a dialed cost to "anywhere in the world" costs me
about what a local metered cost is, slightly more, but not much.
 
For Montana and only once in a while it is ok. For example this week they
bought a new boat but the snow was too heavy so instead of launching it, it
needed to go into storage. As "storage" was full, they needed my input on what
they could move out into the snow to make room. Tarping a boat over is not
enough, you need to lock it away ... it's on an indian reservation and at the
risk of racially profiling it, this year alone we've already had 3 fuel tanks
stolen... from 1 boat.
 
 \%/@rd 

--- D'Bridge 3.99
 * Origin: Many Glacier -- Protect - Preserve - Conserve (2:292/854)