This post originally appeared on July 18, 2009 on DC Metro Moms
Life without internet
I’m stealing bandwidth from a neighbor’s unsecured wireless network to write this because my phone company has told me I have to wait twelve days — twelve days! — before they can come figure out why I have a dial tone on the test box outside of my house but not the inside. Twelve days? Since I am one of about seventeen people in the DC area (and perhaps one of two mommy bloggers?) without a Blackberry or iPhone, this sucks.
The library is closed this morning, and I really don’t want drive and park to pay for crappy coffee to sit at a cafe for slow speed during the very short time my son is away from the house. I suppose it’s possible that I could plug our own wireless router into the test box outside, but it seems like setting up shop in the driveway would just be an invitation for it to rain. So I’m leeching off the (somewhat inconsistent and annoying) network belonging to whatever kind neighbor didn’t put in a password. I’ll refrain, however, from online shopping.
At first I thought that maybe it would be a nice break to unplug. And it was, for about two hours while I focused on unpacking. And then it seemed like everything I wanted to do — Freecycle, Craigslist, the Container Store, IKEA, not to mention email! — required that I be online.
How is it that something that didn’t even exist when I started college be so powerful?
On a personal level, I feel like my move somehow didn’t happen or that my new reality doesn’t actually exist if I can’t post photos for friends and family. My son was oblivious to all electronic media until his parents started down the slippery slope of keep-the-kid-occupied-by-any-means-necessary-so-that: 1. we can keep the house clean so it will sell then 2. we can pack 3. we can unpack. This morning, the recent You Tube addict woke hopeful that our friend the internet was back and asked, “Can I do Caillou on the computer today?”
No, honey. I know. I’m disappointed too.
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