My Internet Went Down for Two Days
Central Wisconsin is a quaint and humble area. There are no major natural disasters that occur in this part of the world. No sink holes, no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis and really we have a large quantity of fresh water at our finger tips. The most fatal natural thing in this area is either the frigid temperatures in the winter or if someone gets pulled into the current of the rivers.
We had a series of severe thunderstorms make their way through the area. Lots of people lost power, trees were knocked down and it was reported that there were nine tornadoes EF0 or EF1 that touched down in the area. I certainly don't want to minimize the damage that has happened and impacted people's lives. A barn was destroyed, trees fell on houses and various people who are seasonal campers lost a lot in the storms. The WPS workers have been working all hours trying to rebuild part of the electrical structure that was damaged to restore power back to people who have been in the dark for going on 58 plus hours.
(Some pictures of the aftermath from the trails that I frequently run)
I want to put everything into perspective before I go into a "first world problems" post about losing internet access. In fact, we didn't even lose power in this storm. We happened to be in an approximate 4 square mile area that still had power while everyone else was in the dark. The lights flickered and that was about it. But one thing I noticed right away is the internet was down.
No.
The Wifi?????
Not the Wifi!
But what did you ever do?!?!
And then I realized how incredibly dependent I've been on the internet this summer. I'm going to start by saying that as a teacher, yes, having the summer off is a wonderful perk of the job BUT it actually isn't all it's cracked up to be. Hear me out. Do you like having a routine? I love a routine! I love getting up at the same time and having some sort of structure to my day. Now imagine you have a routine where you are going at 100 miles per hour. Your day is dictated by a bell - bathroom breaks, lunch, you name it. You get to school early to get some work done, go through the day of teaching and then follow up the day with either a meeting or some sort of practice. In spring and fall my days at work start at 7:15 AM and go to 5:30 or 10:30 (depending on if it's practice or a meet). 100 miles per hour! And then it stops. You go from 100 miles per hour to 0 miles per hour. It's an entire lifestyle change! All of a sudden I have this freedom to my day that I don't know what to do with or how to handle it (I don't do well with not having anything to do). And I do know that I could work a part time job but I work so stinking hard during the school year I need to just stare at a wall for a month to get my direction back. Ok, so I digress, but I realized that I have just been depending on the internet for my entertainment. I spend so much time scrolling through Instagram or Facebook it's unreal. When I'm not scrolling through social media maybe I'm scrolling through Hulu or Netflix for my next binge watch. I even depend on the internet to listen to music. Pandora, Amazon Alexa and YouTube are my internet dependent sources for something to listen to.
I love the access of social media and the connections we can make. Read my social media post here. But once the internet went down I realized I need to add in some screen time discipline to my day. So I got my old case of CD's to jam out and cleaned certain parts of the house that I've been putting off (you know the bin of miscellaneous bath products you've been stashing in the linen closet), I did multiple loads of laundry and then I read two books. Ok I lied, I read a book and a half...I started one of the books BEFORE the internet went down. But I had nothing else to do so I immersed myself in the wisdom of David Meltzer and Rachel Hollis. I felt this large sense of accomplishment, like I could take on anything, and it all was boosted by restricting my internet access. My brain felt useful again!
What could I accomplish this summer by limiting my screen access? What could you accomplish by limiting your screen access?
Let's give it a shot.
By the way, the one that made out the worst in our household over the storms was Oscar. He spent most of the night in his thunder box. Don't feel too bad for him though, he was back to his old self chasing a fly in the living room the next morning followed by a sneak attack while I was crossing the living room with my headphones in.
We had a series of severe thunderstorms make their way through the area. Lots of people lost power, trees were knocked down and it was reported that there were nine tornadoes EF0 or EF1 that touched down in the area. I certainly don't want to minimize the damage that has happened and impacted people's lives. A barn was destroyed, trees fell on houses and various people who are seasonal campers lost a lot in the storms. The WPS workers have been working all hours trying to rebuild part of the electrical structure that was damaged to restore power back to people who have been in the dark for going on 58 plus hours.
(Some pictures of the aftermath from the trails that I frequently run)
I want to put everything into perspective before I go into a "first world problems" post about losing internet access. In fact, we didn't even lose power in this storm. We happened to be in an approximate 4 square mile area that still had power while everyone else was in the dark. The lights flickered and that was about it. But one thing I noticed right away is the internet was down.
No.
The Wifi?????
Not the Wifi!
But what did you ever do?!?!
And then I realized how incredibly dependent I've been on the internet this summer. I'm going to start by saying that as a teacher, yes, having the summer off is a wonderful perk of the job BUT it actually isn't all it's cracked up to be. Hear me out. Do you like having a routine? I love a routine! I love getting up at the same time and having some sort of structure to my day. Now imagine you have a routine where you are going at 100 miles per hour. Your day is dictated by a bell - bathroom breaks, lunch, you name it. You get to school early to get some work done, go through the day of teaching and then follow up the day with either a meeting or some sort of practice. In spring and fall my days at work start at 7:15 AM and go to 5:30 or 10:30 (depending on if it's practice or a meet). 100 miles per hour! And then it stops. You go from 100 miles per hour to 0 miles per hour. It's an entire lifestyle change! All of a sudden I have this freedom to my day that I don't know what to do with or how to handle it (I don't do well with not having anything to do). And I do know that I could work a part time job but I work so stinking hard during the school year I need to just stare at a wall for a month to get my direction back. Ok, so I digress, but I realized that I have just been depending on the internet for my entertainment. I spend so much time scrolling through Instagram or Facebook it's unreal. When I'm not scrolling through social media maybe I'm scrolling through Hulu or Netflix for my next binge watch. I even depend on the internet to listen to music. Pandora, Amazon Alexa and YouTube are my internet dependent sources for something to listen to.
I love the access of social media and the connections we can make. Read my social media post here. But once the internet went down I realized I need to add in some screen time discipline to my day. So I got my old case of CD's to jam out and cleaned certain parts of the house that I've been putting off (you know the bin of miscellaneous bath products you've been stashing in the linen closet), I did multiple loads of laundry and then I read two books. Ok I lied, I read a book and a half...I started one of the books BEFORE the internet went down. But I had nothing else to do so I immersed myself in the wisdom of David Meltzer and Rachel Hollis. I felt this large sense of accomplishment, like I could take on anything, and it all was boosted by restricting my internet access. My brain felt useful again!
What could I accomplish this summer by limiting my screen access? What could you accomplish by limiting your screen access?
Let's give it a shot.
By the way, the one that made out the worst in our household over the storms was Oscar. He spent most of the night in his thunder box. Don't feel too bad for him though, he was back to his old self chasing a fly in the living room the next morning followed by a sneak attack while I was crossing the living room with my headphones in.
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