The second of three threads inspired by the massive San Diego Power Outage... I like to think of myself as someone that lives simply, without too much extraneous crap around. However, nothing proves that more wrong than when the Internet or the power goes out. When I moved into my current place, AT&T was all kinds of stupid and it took me a week to get working Internet. I was going fucking crazy. Every time I would try to think of something to distract myself with, it would always turn out I needed the Internet to do that. OK, I'll watch a movie that I haven't seen. The DVD player is working OK. Let's look up where the nearest Blockbuster is and go rent a DVD. I'll just get online and...FUCK! All right, I have this distraction-free time. I'll learn to cook something new. Lemme just grab a recipe for that new dish I've been wanting to try online and...FUCK! OK, fine. I won't learn how to cook something new. I'll learn a new song on the guitar. That'll be fun. I'll just grab the tab for it online and...FUCK! OK, OK, maybe we can get back online sooner. Lemme just look up AT&T's number on their website and...FUCK! That was me for an entire week. I can't imagine the power being out for an extended period. I'd revert to some kind of twitchy caveman-like state. Yes, yes, y'all are badasses that live in cabins out in the woods and kill bears with Swiss Army Knives and have no problem when denied some of these modern conveniences. Sure you are. I bet half the guys on this board can't even masturbate to completion without the assistance of abundant Internet porn. FOCUS: When have you given up (voluntarily, by happenstance, or by force) had to give up basics like the Internet, electric power, and so on? How do/did you cope? Did you find the ascetic experience cleansing or, like me, just annoying?
The next county over is currently flooding because the river is rising. For some reason, this has led to us losing our power on and off. So I've just been sitting on my back porch, reading a book.
I've posted about this before, but I volunteered in Uganda for six months. Our neighbour had "power," which means one or two days out of the week it would actually work and - if it was working - we could charge cell phones. There was certainly no plumbing. We had to use pit latrines for toilets, buckets for showers and all the water had to be hauled from a bore hole or a household with a tap. Needless to say, we had to boil any water we drank. No television, radio or media of any kind. No mirrors. Laundry by hand in a bucket. Cooking on a charcoal stove. I was never so healthy as I was when I lived there. Until the malaria, but that's a different story. People always bug me that I don't like camping. I've camped exactly once, for one night. No thanks. People who enjoy "getting away" from city services like indoor plumbing have never had to live without them, I think.
I posted this before, but I go up to the Adirondacks every year where we have no phones or internet for the week. I love it, love getting away from it all. But that's only when it's voluntary, when it's taken from me I'm like Frylock, I go nuts and can't stand it, during the power outage from Irene where a lot of the state lost power for a week or so I only lost internet (never lost power) for a day and was freaking out. One thing I find funny is when I was transitioning from my old apartment to the new one, there was a 15 day period where I was paying for both rooms, water was not working in the old place and internet wasn't set up in the new one, I stayed at the old place. When it came to running water vs internet I chose internet. Now granted I went to the new place in the morning to shower before work, but ten years ago running water would have been a no brainer.
My vacations are typically away from modern conveniences, or at the very least away from internet/cell phone/communications. This year was Peru, and hiking in the Andes, so we had no electricity for the duration of the hike. Last year was California, so no break there, but two years ago it was the Galapagos islands - there was electricity on the boat but no communication with the outside world. Before that, we went to Costa Rica for a couple weeks - again, there was electricity, but we were unplugged from communications. Before that, Bermuda... which was pretty urban, but still no email/phones/internet. I like being unplugged for a couple weeks at a time. It's peaceful. I had perhaps no more peaceful time in my life than sitting on the top deck of our boat, floating among the Galapagos islands, in the sunshine, and not a noise to be heard that wasn't the lapping of the water against the boat or the occasional frigate bird that flew overhead. I'm very connected the rest of the time - smartphone always on, regularly checking email/web sites/RSS feeds, but I have zero problem dropping it all to go exist somewhere else for a while. I'd like to do a multi-month trip somewhere but my work situation isn't good for that right now.
I went for a year without regular internet access. Both apartments didn't have neighbors with wireless, and my roommates and I were too broke to spring for it. I could always go to my girlfriends house or the library, but whenever I was home I was without the usual bored surfing. It was tough at first, but I got used to it and then really didn't care or miss it at all. I do love going out into the middle of no where to camp or stay at a cabin or anything of the sort, I'm definitely into disconnecting and enjoying the quiet. Other than that, though, I'm always plugged in.
I am completely addicted to the internet and the computer. As I posted in the rant and rave thread, my laptop's adapter abruptly stopped working, so I've been without a computer since Wednesday and it blows. Thankfully, I have my iPod that has been working fine enough, but I haven't been able to watch anything in a few days so I'm still pretty bored after making my rounds. I've gone a couple weeks without a computer this past year because of trips, and one was so packed and busy that I didn't miss it, but one I still had the evenings free and I went a bit stir crazy on nights when I didn't find people to hang out with. It also sucked not being able to use it for planning things. I would've probably not survived for the two months of my trip this summer if I hadn't brought my computer. (i needed to for work, but even if I didn't have to, I would've anyway.) I would be fine without the internet for a bit, but EVERYTHING I do at home to pass the time requires a computer. However, during that trip my hippie discovery was that I really hate phones. Don't get me wrong, back in the real world, I find them necessary to make plans, do business, and text funny things to my friends, but I don't have a smart phone and I realized that I was so freaking happy to be removed from the whole culture where people are constantly on their phones all around you and you can't have a conversation with someone without them also checking their Facebook. I've totally turned into a curmudgeony old man about them.
When I stayed on an Australian cattle station, the closest internet was about four hours away, one town over. It was lovely. We had basic electricity, but the phone was only operable with a phone card and a lot of luck, and there were no computers to speak of. The TV had no channels, and was only there to play movies, of which we had maybe five. Obviously most of my day was taken up with farm work, but when that wasn't happening, I mostly sketched around the farm, read books or just sat on the porch and thought. Other people had different activities. I remember distinctly one guy who had been there longer had realized that he had nothing to do without internet, and began learning how to make belts from the station owner. By the time I got there, he was crafting beautiful works of leather in the evenings. I enjoyed the hell out of living there. I don't know why I left, honestly. As much as I appreciate technology, I am in a constant state of worry about it's impact on social living, and the love/hate relationship is sometimes too stressful to deal with. It's a hell of a lot easier to come home from working and not have to worry about anyone or anything bothering you. Then again, I'm a grumpy old man at heart.
Last week, we had Tropical Storm Irene come through. The storm itself was nothing major, just really windy. We got about 8 inches of rain, but with the slope of our property, we had no flooding or anything to worry about. However, the entire state lost power. When you live out in the country, you have a well. A well takes an electric pump. For four days, we had no water, no cable, no electricity, no internet, no cell phone service and because we have an electric stove, no way to cook things other than the BBQ. We lost all the food in both fridges, which sucked. Instead of TV and computers, we read books and played board games by candlelight or oil lamp. It was a great way to spend time together without being plugged in to stuff. If not for the lack of water, cooking and food, it was actually a pretty nice way to spend time with my kids and wife.
When we lived in NH in the 90s, a huge ice storm hit the northeast that knocked out power for 4 days. Since we were on a well, loss of power also meant no water. Past experience taught us that, if weather conditions threatened a power loss, fill up the bathtub in the main bath upstairs, and fill up the washing machine in the half-bath on the first floor so the toilets could be flushed. The family room had a wood burning fireplace and a sleeper sofa, so we basically lived in that room for the duration. There was an ample supply of snow, so I would fill a 24 qt. stockpot and boil it on the side burner of my grill on the deck so we would have potable water, and we put as much perishables in coolers and kept them outside on the deck and I cooked on the grill and in the fireplace. After that, I had an electrician wire in a new separate circuit box for the well pump, furnace (oil, but electric start) and kitchen with a hookup for a generator. Money well spent.
For about the last 1.5 years I've been without TV and internet (excluding work internet). I've hardly noticed it and have been able to get a lot more things done because of it. However as I'm now about to move in with my girlfriend I think both of these are going to make a come back, as she refuses to be without them. I just plan on never using them