Living Off-Line

My trusty laptop has been unplugged from the internet for almost three weeks now. It's accompanied us on vacation to places where connectivity is limited or mostly non existent. At my father's house I was able to get on his wireless network and check email but that was weeks ago. Usually this column is written using the online version of Google Documents but right now I'm using the new offline feature that saves the file in the computer until you can connect to the internet again. We're at the family cottage on a lake in northern Ontario. We have a phone so I suppose I could order dial-up internet but it's not worth it for a few weeks in the summer. There is no high speed available unless you subscribe to the expensive satellite service. My neighbour tells me an over-the-air high speed service may soon cover this area but I don't know when that will happen. Even in the nearby town of Parry Sound, I can't get this laptop online. There are no internet cafes or a Starbucks with free wi-fi. The only way to get my internet fix is by visiting the library and using one of their computers.

The funny thing is we have better TV here in this cottage than we have at home. My brother-in-law who was here before us brought up his satellite receiver and he subscribes to almost every channel you can get, including movies. It's a far cry from the cottage life I remember as a kid. There wasn't a television here for the longest time and when we finally brought one up it could only pick up one grainy channel with the built in rabbit ears. Local radio also used to be limited in this part of Ontario. Now there are numerous FM stations that boom in here but when I was a kid and the radio dial was mostly AM, it was difficult pulling in any signals, especially during the day. But that all changed at night. The AM band came alive at night, especially here, far from any interference and I remember spending hours tuning the dial, listening to stations from all over North America. About the same time I discovered short wave radio and the world literally came to me through that little speaker. I think I developed my love of radio by spending many long nights scanning the bands here in this cottage.

But back to the present and the need for internet. I say that because these days I am almost always connected. When you think of it, most of us are. Aside from basic email, we get our news and weather online, we read newspapers and magazines, we watch videos and download podcasts and consume all types of content at the click of a keyboard. It's probably an addiction.

Three weeks without it now and I'm surviving. The truth is it's been a lot easier to ween myself off that digital lifeline than I expected. The usual course of cottage activities keeps one busy, everything from swimming, kayaking, fishing, playing horseshoes and visiting with family. Then there are the ongoing repairs and jobs that need to be done at every cottage. It's also a time to really dig into a book. I always get more reading done here than anywhere else. And yes the radio reception is still fantastic at night.

So I haven't missed the internet very much. It's actually been a nice break pulling the plug. Soon enough I'll once again be tethered to the online world so I should enjoy this short period of digital freedom. My only problem now is finding a way to email in this column.