77 - The droneway.

joneworlds@mailbox.org

Early the other morning, some big work crew from Amazon comes by Cliff and his grandma's property where I live, with big trucks and everything. And it's pretty loud so early in the morning, so Cliff and his grandma go to check it out.

What I later hear, is that a few years ago Amazon staked a claim on about all of Burloo and the surrounding countryside. I guess they can just do that now? In the ceded territories, at least. Anyways, I hear they mailed out some notices, but Burloo town hall didn't get around to opening them, or reading them or anything. Never contested it, pretty much totally forgot about it. Didn't really get concerned. That's the Burloo way, for sure. And so by now, Amazon's starting to build some kind of high-speed droneway or something, running right through this place. Low flying remote-control cargo helis, tethered to a power track on the ground, something like that.

All these flatbed crane trucks are here unloading girders and rolls of cables. So Cliff's out there talking with their construction manager or whoever she is, and his grandma is standing behind them yelling and cussing and spitting like a centaur. Eventually they're done talking and Cliff comes away with a big grin on his face. He's got some coupon. Grandma's pretty mad at him about that, whacking him with her cane. And I guess I can't totally blame her, because what the heck do you do with a non-transferable $100K coupon for your next rocket-ship ride. But I think she's getting a little too upset about this whole deal. Me, I just don't want to go through life getting sore about every little 20-tonne drone freighter flying 50m over my home. Even if it is three times an hour.

Next - 78 - Elf wrestling at the mall.

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