I spent all of Thursday without the internet. My poor laptop sat so empty, defenseless, and sad. It made me realize how dependent I am on technology. On the one hand, it was nice to be unplugged. But on the other hand, it was really tough and downright frustrating at times trying to conduct business as usual with my phone.
If my current jobs weren’t so tech-dependent I probably wouldn’t have cared so much, but I literally was in the dark the entire day. It was tough to post my blog, it was tough to use social media — heck, I couldn’t even really use text messaging all that much either! I’m coordinating the purchase of a large order of running shirts, and I couldn’t access some of the information I needed. I couldn’t post meetups for my playgroup. It was a rough day!
It all started when my daughter and I arrived home after taking Boo to school and a quick Target run. I asked her if she wanted to watch a show, and of course, as soon as I turned on the TV I saw the error message.
“Signal undetected. Check cable connection.”
Then I checked the WiFi on my phone.
For realz? This already happened once before to my poor baby girl who got so upset the first time when the power was out and she couldn’t watch a show! Not again… I need to stop asking her “do you want to watch a show?” before I know I’m able to produce a show for her.
By some small miracle, we were able to watch a show cached on our DVR. I have no idea how this worked out, but it did. Phew. Little Bee got to watch a quick episode of Sofia the First while I attempted to “fix” our internet. My first thought was to try and reset our internet router. If you are experiencing issues with your internet connection, sometimes resetting your router can be enough to get it working again. You can learn more here about resetting your internet router. Anyway, little did I know that our provider had no estimated time of when it would be fixed, nor did I have a clue that it wouldn’t be restored until 10:00 pm Thursday evening.
I was actually speaking to a colleague of mine about this the other day. She runs an online business and therefore it is vital that she has a reliable internet connection at all times. Apparently, switching to satellite internet has made a huge difference. Not only is her connection quicker and more reliable, but she has not encountered any downtime issues just yet. Besides, when running an online business, you cannot afford to lose your internet connection. With this in mind, I am incredibly tempted to learn more about the benefits of satellite internet bundles. Satellite internet would be great for us as we love to stream TV shows and movies online.
To be honest it is about time that I thought about changing our internet service provider. We had a friend who linked us this article here and told us to consider our options as I have not been happy with our broadband connection for some time now. That is not all though, another friend who lives in Texas told me that she managed to get a better broadband package after checking out comparison websites like Internet Advisor so I might have to do some research of my own. Consequently, if you also live in Texas you can click here to take a look at their website too if you are thinking of switching your ISP as well.
So there I was. In the dark. All day.
Truthfully, it was a little liberating. Though when I did use my phone to get some things done, it was very inefficient and I felt like I was wasting more time navigating on my phone than I was playing with my kids. When you’re a mama, it’s all about efficiency. But, I cleaned almost the entire house. Boo played outside, and I cooked a pretty phenomenal dinner. So not all was lost. 🙂
My husband and I have been watching a show on National Geographic about Mick Dodge. He’s fascinating. If you get a chance, check out the show. He lives undetected on the fat of the land. He’s a nomad of sorts. A genius. If he were in the dark, it would be because it was nighttime. Not because he lost internet connectivity. He’s my hero. I told my husband, as soon as the kids go off to college, we’re selling everything we own and living in the woods like Mick Dodge. (Check out this great article about Mick Dodge and his show on Nat Geo.)
 |
| Image courtesy of: olympicmountainearthwisdomcircle.org |
That’s all from here. Fingers crossed my lights stay on for a while. And here’s wishing you a solid internet connection and a lovely weekend!
Happy Friday!
xo
Do you feel tethered to technology?
If you’ve been without the internet for an extended period, what activities did you do that you otherwise might not have?
