Communication Outage for a day

I think this is the first time that we've been without phone or Internet communication in a long time, maybe forever. Even when we've been in areas with limited or sparse coverage, we've been able to put up the Wilson antennae and get a weak signal. But we learned today that all electricity to the nearby tower facility had been knocked out yesterday and there was no communication at all for Verizon and a couple other carriers. It was out for almost the entire day! Right after midnight one of the phones regained consciousness and it woke me up with its chime.

Neither one of us are big users of cell phones. We don't text or Twitter. We use the phones as phones for talking with family and friends. Just this week I saw a TV show about families that were addicted to electronic devices like cell phones, video games, the Internet and they had stopped talking to each other in person and had stopped eating meals together. Pretty sad, but I had a tiny glimpse of going without Internet for a few hours. The TV show had them give up their gadgets for a week or 2 and the family members grew closer to each other and spent time together. They ended up being happier without all the electronic toys and gadgets.

We were on the river fishing for most of the day, but when we got home I wondered what I'd do without the Internet. Well, I read a book and I played with my digital photos a little and prepared some new greeting cards to print, but mostly read the book. Rick was happy because he's always reading or tying flies. He didn't miss the phone or the Internet for that short time. The electricity wasn't out in the campground so we had satellite TV to entertain us (like we need TV to entertain us??). I realized how much I "enjoy" my laptop and the Internet. For a while I kept thinking that I could use the computer and look something up (a fly pattern, something about the camera, a map, a fishing report), but then I'd say "nope, no signal." I admit I do turn it on in the morning to check news and email, but then I don't think about it at all while on the river. When we get home in the afternoon I again check the news and email, and upload any photos from the cameras. Perhaps I should spend less time on the computer and set aside time to read more books. Perhaps I should do less blogging. Maybe I'll work on a healthy balance between all activities. Maybe I'll fish more, read more and use the computer less. Maybe.