Living Without Technology

     I love my little slice of heaven, but nobody else seems to care about it, except for a few fishermen and hunters and that's a seasonal sort of thing. Most of the time the only company Katie Rose and I have are the birds and the deer and a bear. It means that technology hasn't reached this far and probably won't for another twenty or thirty years. I've lived in this neck of the woods for a long time and I haven't witnessed much improvement over the years. High speed internet isn't available where I live and it's a questionable thing, as well, to have satellite television.

     But, that really doesn't make a lot of difference to me anyway because I don't even own a television. This causes issues sometimes when my friends are trying to tell me about something that happened on their favorite show and I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about in the first place. It makes keeping up with world issues and news pretty hard too. I do have radio and the homepage of Yahoo to keep me abreast of some of the most important things, but there are things that still escape my notice

     I'd like to have all the modern conveniences, but where I live, storms and acts of God can make the telephone and electricity services go down for days and days. When I moved recently and had to have my phone service changed, the guy who was doing that had to call three times to be able to find this place. Even GPS has trouble finding me!

      Then, as if I hadn't had to deal with enough troubles moving, my computer,(fondly known as 'confuser') decided to have a major breakdown and I discovered that, even though my technology is limited, I'm really rather spoiled as far as my computer is concerned. I have an ancient dinosaur computer right now while I wait for mine to be repaired and I'm here to tell you ...... this is for the birds!!!

     It can't handle more than one thing at a time and I have to wait for forever to get a page loaded. It doesn't even have enough ports on it to handle my printer or my camera. Downloading music is a thing of the past and surfing the web??!!.... well, I could take a nap sometimes while I wait for a site to get loaded. It takes me fifteen minutes or more just to get to my in-box to check my mail!!

      Some of my friends who live in larger cities will try to tell me I should get this service or try that. What they don't understand is that when they pass a certain point on their way here, they have entered no man's land and technology just doesn't exist here. Satellite service for television and internet is available, but the forest is thick, trees and mountains are in the way and sometimes, like here in my little valley, the mountain blocks the signals for half the day. One of my neighbors, in an effort to have television, cut down four very tall trees and all he has now is a lot of firewood for the winter. The service people didn't realize that the hill behind his house was still going to block the satellite even after the trees were down. Line of sight to a satellite is pretty important and a mountain tends to block that line very efficiently.

     But, as far as Katie Rose and I are concerned, we don't care. Usually. We have a fireplace for cooking and heat when the electricity goes out. I have gravity-fed water so I don't need the pumps. I don't watch television so I won't be missing my favorite shows and I never complain that with a thousand channels, there's still nothing on TV to watch. The President's speeches never irritate me nor do the antics of actors like Lindsey Lohan or Charlie Sheen.

     What does annoy me is that I can't add photography to my blog. I can't download music. I can't.....and can't never could, but sometimes you just have to learn to live with your limitations and make the best of it. That means that Katie and I will go for a walk, we'll spend time with friends and family and have quality time together. I'll make a batch of brownies and share them with my neighbor who keeps leaving bags of vegetables hanging on my doorknob. I'll have the time to sew a few more quilt pieces together or draw another picture to add to my site or take a few more photos in preparation of the day when my nice fancy, modern computer is fixed. (I can't wait!!!)

     But until then, I am pulling my hair and screaming obscenities at my computer screen. I'm going to discover just how many pictures my camera will hold before it says 'no more'. And one of these days, I will introduce you to Katie Rose and Holly. I'm thinking about making Katie Rose her own Facebook page, but not today. Today, I'm going to complain about the lack of technology in my life, pack some lunch and go sit on the creek bank and watch the water flow by. I will remind myself how water is the strongest force ever and that I, too, should learn to go with the flow. But, sometimes I do feel like a leaf that gets caught in the swirls and eddies, like the boulder sitting in the middle of the path, like the grains of sand that get swept away.

     All lessons that can stand me in good stead if I just let them. Personal growth is the hardest part of life. Technology is nice, but I can live without it to a certain extent. In the meantime, I'll find some other thing to do that will maybe make me a better person  and technology won't have a thing to do with it.