Life Without The 'Berry.

OK, so here I was without a phone.

Without my blackberry messenger, without my daily farm business emails, without my funny emails, without text, without my weather forecast and radar to show which way the storm systems were moving, which is oh so important for us farmers especially at spraying time, without twitter, without access to my favorite forums and discussions, sports and news.

Jeepers, I felt like I was a primate back in the stone age. Well, that'll be a good for me to go unconnected, I was free! I told myself, as I squared my shoulders. I was going to prove to myself that there is life after blackberry.

So to start things of my hands felt kinda empty and my thumbs restless. Sort of like reverse carpal tunnel. But, being Sunday and all with the morning church sermon and a good roast duck coming up for lunch, I had no time to contemplate these early withdrawal symptoms. After lunch I was feeling drowsy and decided to go have a nap. So far so good I told myself.

After I woke up from my Sunday afternoon nap feeling refreshed and ready to go, I brewed myself a good strong cup of coffee, picked out my favorite chocolate bar and that's when the withdrawal symptoms started to kick in.

What will my 50+ BB messenger buddies and groups think when I won't return their messages? They know that I'm always on and really like to socialize and chat about everything and anything. Plus I've always got my two bits to add and am very opinionated.

Thinking (albeit foolishly) about how I was starving the world with my wit and knowledge I walked over to the window and looked out and seen some nasty storm clouds brewing on the horizon, without thinking I reached over for my blackberry to see which way the storm was tracking. Then I realized I was doing without and threw it back on the couch. "Darn it, anyways" I said.

I was missing my phone!

"Oh well, to bad so sad" I consoled myself. I was made of sterner stuff than that. I was not gonna let a bitty phone control my life.

I went outside to do some yard work, pruned a few trees, pulled a few weeds from the flower garden which was really coming into its own after the beautiful rain we had had a few days before, also pounded in a few stakes and made some supports for my two grape plants/vines which had started to take over the side of the house, they were looking really good this year and I could see that I was going to have a nice crop of grapes. That done, I started to feel better. "Who needs a phone anyways?" I asked myself "Sure not me".

That night I took louie l'amour and a cup of my favorite tea (chamomile with honey) with me for my soak in the tub. "AHH, this is the life" I told myself. "This is the way it used to be, simple and uncomplicated, who needs to be bombarded with information that may or may not be useful. Is it really that important to read and and respond to all those social updates? Does it really matter if I know what goes on in the middle east with all the uprisings? Do I really need to know what is going on outside my comfortable little world? Am I actually happier with all that information at my fingertips, than my forefathers were just a scant 50/100 years ago, or even myself just a decade or two ago? Do I need my head spinning with information overload when I go to sleep at night?

24 hours without a phone. Yes (fist pump). With these and other thoughts I went to bed.

-thoughtsfromlouieville-

Coming soon and up next.

"The decision". To be or not to be, connected that is.