Catching Up

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The new modem was delivered at 1:30 this afternoon and Ed had us up and running by 2:15.
The first thing I did was check my email and spend an hour reading and dealing with it. The next thing was check our library accounts to renew items, remind myself just what was due when this coming week and check on the availability of several more things ordering a few of them.

There is so much to catch up on after four days without web access. Blogs to read, news to read and watch. Data to look up. Questions to get answers for (llike where exactly in Africa is the Oldive, which figures in the navel I began Friday?). Reading and writing challenges to sign up for (ScriptFrenzy and Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon). Emails to write. LOLcats to look at and laugh. Blog stats to check on. Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads to check in at. IM conversations to engage in. TV shows to stream. My Book Drum profile to work on. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.



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But I did (maybe) take to heart some of the lesson I learned Friday about the addictive nature of my relationship to the Internet. I made myself go out on the porch with my crochet and books for about an hour before dinner.

Well, one could say it was our cat Merlin who made me. He sat beside my right arm for most of that hour I was dealing with email and kept grabbing my elbow, wrist or fingers every time I reached for the mouse. He had food and water in his bowls so I suspected what he wanted and sure enough when I got up off the edge of the bed he led me through the living room and pointed his nose at the front door. I said to him, You might as well be speaking English.

Spending time on the porch in the sun with either me or Ed or both of us was one of the fallouts of the dead modem for Merlin and it only took him three days to learn to expect that to be part of the afternoon. It would be good for both of us to keep that up.

Other lessons I learned: I can survive without checking for email or IMs every five to fifteen minutes. I don't need to check icanhascheezeberger.com several times a day or even every day. Ditto for Facebook and Twitter and even my blog stats. I learned how my frequently compulsive checking on such things has sucked time and energy out of my days and joy out of my endeavors. Especially my online endeavors. I hope I can resist returning to the status quo of last week.

Things I did instead of Internet between midnight Friday morning and Monday afternoon (besides fretting that is): Read in three novels. Wrote. Crocheted. Watched DVD. Sat on porch soaking up Spring. Sorted and organized some craft stuff--mostly related to crocheted bookmarks. Daydreamed. Visited with Ed. Watched a move with Ed--The Pursuit of Happiness starring Will Smith (talk about lessons to learn).