What If the Internet Really Was a Big Truck?

Nine full days without the aid of technology. I knew I could do it, however, what suprised me is how difficult it was to avoid. Before I pat myself too hard on the back, I should clarify what I mean by "without." I was camping, or at least, "roughing it" for most of the last week and a half. I was free and clear of an electrical outlet for...let's see...four of those days. This resulted in what I refer to as my "camping bliss." This "bliss" I refer to manifests itself in the inability to charge a cell phone and the incapability to get on-line and waste hours typing my radom thoughts to no one in particular. This bliss has the power to eliminate the urge to see who's on facebook or check to see if anyone at all is bothering to read my blog (props to you who, for unknown reasons, have come back more than once). When searching for this level of calm, you must be wary. For even without electricity, we modern folk can still deny ourselves this euphoric state as long as our batteries hold out. And what if, as I did later in my trip, we venture into the hinterlands of the north woods and still find ourselves in a cabin with electricity and battery charger in our hands, what are we to do? How can we escape the grid and find the rapture that awaits us? This answer is, as it is so often, a simple one. Change your carrier to AT&T. For even with the most stout and resilient batteries on the market, your charge will do you no good. Their coverage is fantastically piss poor. Now, if I was a working man during these days of northern exposure, I'd be left without options. I'd be demanding my money back and changing providers. As it was, it served to work in my favor, and for that AT&T, I bow to you. Counting the days WITH electricity, I had only four days out of nine with cell phone service. So even though I was fully capable of charging up the old cell phone for most of my time off, I was only bothered by it a few, insignificant days. This was very nice. You see, I don't like talking on the phone.
Now, if you're the type of person that can't resist the urge to gossip unconditionally for hours at a time, a cell phone is your best friend. If, however, you are like me and despise the fact that anyone, at anytime, can interupt what you are doing, a cell phone is nothing short of a portable nightmare without the hope of a 7 a.m. wake-up call. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily want people to stop calling me, I just don't want those people to be offended when I "can't make it" to the phone because I'm "indisposed." But I digress.
All I really wanted to say is that I am back, well rested, happy to have spent some time away from all that makes us the modern people we are. I don't despise all these different ways we have of communicating, I love this stuff. The better aquainted I've gotten with blogging and various other forms of social networking, the more I've enjoyed it. I only miss the time I am able to spend WITH my friends, and this past week or so I was able to get caught up with a couple of them. I only wish I could do the very same thing with so many others. But, as the honorable Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, once said, at least we've got this new fangled "series of tubes" keeping us together, however tenuous it may be. And the Senator was right, the internet isn't "a big truck" but sometimes I wish it was.