Vacation Messages

There is a facility, on Unix systems, to change one's email so that when
one is away, anyone who sends one mail, gets sent an email, containing a
message from the user, and that one will read that email when one
returns. The "message" part is fully configurable, and I got tired of
putting in boring messages like "I'm on holiday for two weeks" so I
got a bit more creative, and wrote some doggerel instead. Here are
some of my efforts.

by Kathryn A

Aussiecon

Fare thee well, oh feckless friends,
I'm off away, my worktime ends
But "I'll be back", as Arnie said
When home from Aussiecon I tread.

Flying I

I am gone
I am flown
Across the sea
I am gone.
I shall be back
from far away
in a week, two weeks,
and in a day.

Flying II

With apologies to Robert Frost....

I have been one acquainted with the flight.
I have flown out in rain-- and back in rain.
I have outflown the furthest city light.
I have flown o'er the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And picked up my luggage, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and heard the engines whine
When far away an unintelligable cry
Came over PA-systems from another 'line,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the flight.

Britain-Bound

(February 2001)

As the heat turned over into red
I packed my bags and desert shores I fled
Straight into Winter's cold embraces
They say it's Spring, but wintertime to me
It's not for weather but the happy faces
Of fannish friends there that I long to see
And so I go.
Not for a sennight,
Not for a fortnight,
But almost a score of days, I am gone.

Yet, there be hope, if the Web stretch far
That I may see, though far I rome,
My mail at foobox, if I chance
To touch the Web 'fore I get home.