The five days I didn’t have internet access at home were painful and strangely wonderful – just not at the same time.
It all started one morning when I went to my desk, coffee in hand, as I always do, to start my day. A few clicks and nothing. No bars. No Safari. Nothing.
Hence, several frustrating hours with our DSL carrier: automated service -holding – a technician I couldn’t understand – holding again – testing the line over the phone – more holding – getting disconnected – only to start the whole hair pulling process over again, and so on. Several hours later it was discovered the root of our problem seemed to be a faulty modem, but not to worry, they would overnight it to us. Hallelujah.
Two days pass and no modem. Panic set in. How will I survive another day without internet? Email? Facebook? Pinterest? And, heaven forbid, Twitter? Thankfully, my cell phone had internet, but it was an old model BlackBerry and I nearly went blind from reading the tiny screen. (Just so you know, I’ve since updated to an iPhone.)
Desperate, I called my DSL carrier – AGAIN. The technician couldn’t have been more pleasant, apologizing robotically with the same line over and over again. “Please” I begged, “no need to apologize, just bring me back my internet. And hurry!”
So I did what anybody would do desperate for Wi-Fi. I went to the nearest Starbucks. The only problem is I like to work in a place that’s quiet and private, like home. Somewhere I can be in my pajamas (but I tell you people it’s yoga pants), somewhere I can have my hair piled on top of my head and my funky reading glasses on with nary a stitch of makeup. I can’t be caught dead like this. Even in desperate times vanity rears it’s well coiffed head.
Thus, I settled on the Starbucks parking lot in a nice shady spot close enough to the building to still be hooked up to Wi-Fi. Not as comfortable as home and way more awkward. I worried people were looking at me like I was crazy, setting up office in the parking lot. The baristas took out the trash, tilted their head, and slowly nodded. “Oh, to heck with this” I said to myself and drove home where I could live like the Amish.
I began to wonder what on earth I did before the internet? Then I got busy. Here are the things I got done instead: I wrote this post, cleaned out cupboards and drawers and closets and dropped off discarded items to various charities. I returned gifts, organized notes for my blog, set up files, cleaned off my desk, went to the car wash, called friends, found some new recipes to dog-ear but will never try, and so on. I felt freer than I had in a long time.
It was at that point I realized I desperately needed to manage my time better. The internet had become a huge distraction and alluring enough that I could waste away hours in front of a screen instead of living, or writing, or whatever. This break was a blessing in disguise.
On the fifth day of my new found freedom, the modem arrived. I considered not opening the box, but at the time I still had a teenager living in the house – so I caved. I’m embarrassed to admit, within a week or so, I was back to my old tricks. Maybe I should pray for a power outage.
How do you survive when your internet is down?
As days past, I am spending more and more time on the Internet at home. thenI never leave home without my IPad even though I don’t always find the time to access it, but, I am comforted in knowing it is close be. Addicted, I think so
Hahaha! I laughed at the image of you camped out in the Starbucks parking lot accessing the wi-fi. It made me think of a scene we might see on a Dateline episode about people who hang out in the parking lot and hack into the computers of unsuspecting customers inside.
I get very twitchy if my internet is down, or even slow. I almost forget that I can do a lot of my blog work and writing offline. That would make me way less tempted to check Facebook and Twitter (both my personal and blog profiles for each) every ten minutes! Talk about time wasters! OK, so I’m not going to disconnect my internet but I may try closing the browser windows to keep temptation at bay.
Thanks for the insight!
Oh god, my blood ran cold when I read your opening paragraphs. I’m so impressed that you could muster up the will to do all that work. I would have just sulked!
Oh– it’s such a struggle. My husband has the wireless set to go down from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. My phone has 3G though so I still sometimes end up stealing a glance that way. Sign of a true addict.
I did make some strides though when I cut way down on my iPhone time by not charging it in the bedroom. I’ve kept that good habit and it does make difference–just that one change.
Baby steps, Nina. I think I’ll starting cutting down a little each day and see how that goes.
I must say, I like a good power outage. It gives me an excuse to just read…
However, I’m kind of spoiled, seeing as I married an IT guy…
I have sat in the coffee shop parking lot often. Sometimes i wa’s because was sporting the look you described. Sometimes it was because there were too many hipsters inside.
I thought that was you in the parking lot!
I can relate to all of this!! It’s awful to be so consumed with our “blog world” isn’t it? Awful and wonderful… or else we wouldn’t keep coming back to it over and over again.
I am working on setting boundaries better… it’s SO hard. But I am missing out on “life” in the real world, although writing and reaching and connecting are my passion- I love and need to connect in real life too. Oh, and do things like feed my children and laundry and crap like that… 😉
I look forward to Hurricanes just for this reason. What?
Linda, I think many of us can relate to this post. I had my computer “go down” twice in the past few months…Once I spilled a glass of red wine across the keyboard {I live in the Wine Country, so a glass here and there is a must} and my computer went totally “black” on me, like gone, bonkers over and done…I panicked and cried, my heart was racing and after looking at the face of my hubby and kids, it had dawned on me that I was a social media junkie…one hot mess of a mom, thinking she could NOT live without all this. I am the one who complained about social media in the first place. It was a blessing as I have not learned to log off and shut down a few times during the day and be a mom and a wife and enjoy me and life..:) I just make more time for working out, catching up with the kids and spend more time in the kitchen meal planning…which is actually fun 🙂 Great post
I really do get so much more done when our internet goes down.
Time management is hard. I need help being better with it, too.
We had a power outage which resulted in a loss of connection for another day. 2 days without internet?!? I thought I was going to die- Every time I went to do something I was stopped with, “Oh, wait, I need power to do that. And wifi.” But I was happy that the kids were forced to play with each other and we unplugged for a couple days!
Amazing what we can accomplish when not distracted by electronics!! Good for you! I did it once, once was probably good for me – ha (came from FtheF)
This is the stuff nightmares are made of! Stopping by from Finding the Funny. Great blog! Hope you can visit some time.
I’m not on as much these days just to stay relatively sane. So, I think it would be a blessing!
I hear ya! Thanks for coming by to visit 🙂