Saturday, February 9, 2008

I'm Baaaack !

Hi Y'all !


Okay, I've finally managed to throw my kids off the computer, and into bed, so now, it's my turn ! It's been four days without our Internet connection, and during that time, we were also without cable T.V. or phone service - GASP ! You would think that my kids had been deprived of food, water, and air ! Hard to believe that little more than a year ago, those things, at least the cable and Internet, weren't even part of their lives and somehow, they managed to survive. And to be honest, most days, I could care less about the phone. All it does is ring incessantly, and cause me to drop everything to go on a scavenger hunt for the handset, (God forbid, anyone else should stop what they're doing) and when I finally find it, it's either a solicitor, or one of the kids' friends - it's never for me. But since we have phone, cable, and Internet all in one package - when one goes, they all go.

Even when Jake isn't grounded, the phone is his life line. He spends most of his evenings talking with his friends, and checking his My Space messages every hour, on the hour. And Heather is even worse about the Internet. She has several friends on an anime site, and she could easily spend every waking hour chatting, writing stories, and role playing. Without her computer, she's lost. I tried to explain that many years ago, the wise and ancient ones, used to use things like pencils and paper to do those kinds of things, but the idea seems to disgust her. However, by Wednesday, she did haul her electric typewriter up from the basement, and pound on it for a while. ( I wouldn't be surprised if she drafted a threatening letter, complete with terroristic threats, to the cable company on it.)

Anyway, thank God technology has finally been restored to our home. I wish I could say that the last four days has resulted in all sorts of wonderful adventures to share with you; but alas, my biggest accomplishment has been refraining from strangling my children as they whinged about being "bored." My children can now be "one" with the cyber-world, or whatever.

I have to admit, it was kind of odd to go through the day without hearing the soundtrack of some T.V. show as background noise. After a few days, I actually started to have . . . thoughts! Or maybe, my mind was just playing tricks on me? Probably, just a temporary hallucination - resulting from the lack of constant, and meaningless, auditory stimuli.

Well, I've pretty much spent most of my evening just catching up on everyone else's blogs and I should probably get myself off to bed. I can sleep well knowing that the world is still spinning on it's axis, just as it should, and that all of my Internet friends are still safe and well. I really missed you all. Catch ya tomorrow.

Good night, and have a great weekend.
Love,
Susan

5 howled back:

Anonymous said...

Once in a while, the phone is for you... Mel and I will have to start calling you on a set schedule to make you feel more phone-connected I guess. That'll make your kids think their Mom is popular and hip in the grown-up world!

It is amazing how reliant we have become on technology and the industries that have sprung up around them for our daily activities. The very thought of having a conversation is unheard of to most families these days it seems. Even here, it is a struggle to get Scott to put his computer down and turn off the television for dinner. Prior to his invasion into my life, I did not have cable, and my ISP was a dial up and s-l-o-w, too much so for him.

I'm glad you're doing well and things are leveling off... how's house-hunting going?

-C

[Mel-- miss hearing of your adventures and misadventures alike...when are you going to fly over for a visit with us?]

Auburn~haired~artist said...

Actually, the coolest thing happened ! A mere 5 minutes after the phone was re-connected, the very first phone call WAS for me ! It was Mel !!! It's so nice to know that I was missed !

Love you guys !

Anonymous said...

This post made me laugh because I could well imagine the suffering and wailing of destitution if our tv and computer went out. I'm lucky that so far, they are too young to really miss the phone but I imagine it will happen eventually.

The tv going would be a massive deprivation though and what would we EVER do to survive?!!
Hard to believe that one hundred years ago all kids did was play outside, read and gasp, talk to one another. :0

Glad you are back and it was very cool of me to ring just 5 minutes after the phone was switched on. Can you imagine my complex if the phone was not connected? I would have felt sure you'd skipped the country! :)

One day I will come on a big plane in the sky, drugged to my eyeballs with horse tranquillizers and I will come and hang out with you and C. I think it would be such great fun.

Oh and all my stressing that the credit on my cell phone was going to run out - that call only cost me $12!! I had heaps of credit left, so now I know it really doesn't cost that much to ring.

Bye for now,
love mel

Auburn~haired~artist said...

I was surprised as well that it wasn't as much as I had feared. We really do need to set up a time and place for the three of us to get together. We could get into so much trouble !

Love you guys .

Unknown said...

Welcome back! I'm glad all of you survived the technology outage.