Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Back

I'm back from the land of no internets and thought you might like a picture of where I was for some of the time. A few thoughts:
  • It is much, much more peaceful living without newspapers, NPR, internet, and television. (Actually, there was a television that got two whole channels, one of which was in English, but it was hardly used.)
  • It felt like culture shock to go to a conference, as though I was traveling from the 19th century into the 21st, although I had my computer to anchor me to the present day.
  • On the other hand, it is pleasant not to have to go on Spider Patrol before going to sleep at night. I know that Arachnids Are Our Friends when it comes to keeping down the bug population and that spiders are inevitable if you're by the water, but after a couple of nasty bites, you stop preaching peaceful coexistence if the spiders are near where you sleep.
  • I tried one more Panera run before returning, but the experience of getting online there was even more disorienting than before--not Panera's fault, but the fault of the culture shock. You know how when you open the oven door when something is baking and you feel a blast of hot air? It really felt like that, although there weren't even any stressful emails.
  • Those books I insisted on lugging with me and paying the extra money for another suitcase? I used maybe 1/5 of them.
It's good to be back.

3 comments:

BrightBoy said...

That's such an interesting thought, the idea that, without technology, it really is possible to see life the way that our forebears did.

About a month or so ago, the power in my town went out for an entire night. I was in bed at 10:30, as opposed to two o'clock in the morning, which is when I normally retire.

Without the Internet and all of my electronic distractions, I found that there really wasn't much to do but go to sleep.

Anonymous said...

welcome back and yay for no more spiders!

undine said...

I wonder if that's the key to more and better sleep, blackenedboy--less technology?

Thanks, justme! I'm glad for the absence of spiders, too.