Today it’s been exactly two months since I had home Internet. Four months to go and I confess that when Comcast comes back on August 20, I plan to binge my little heart out streaming Amazon shows, forum browsing, and even indulging in a whole bunch of disgusting news reading. I’ll surf until my brain turns soggy. When November comes, I’ll follow 16 live blogs of every dismal, depressing election result and love every second of it.
That said, I generally haven’t missed connectedness that much and am looking forward to a summer of getting lots of small things done on the house (no big projects this year) because I’m not chained to my computer.
There’ve been some inconvenient moments and a few minor aggravations, but mostly it’s simply been no big deal. And those house debts I need to pay down are getting paid just that much faster without that extra $40 going to Comcast every month.
The few PITAs have been unexpected ones. Last week when I was sick, I blogged less because I didn’t have the oomph to drag myself to the library and didn’t want to pollute the other patrons. If I’d had home ‘Net, I’d likely have blogged much more than usual because I’d be drowning my sorrows in cyberspace.
The library itself has sometimes been … interesting. On one of the four days its open, it hosts thundering herds of children. Not exactly an aid to concentration. And there are a few grownups whose company I could do without. There’s one man — he just left a moment ago as I write this, so the memory of him is vivid — who must pour a full bottle of cheap cologne over himself every morning. Now, I am not somebody who has scent allergies or even a particularly sensitive sense of smell. I rarely even notice people’s perfumes. But when this man is 20 feet away from me, as he was just now browsing a shelf, I’m not only assaulted by the reek of him, but can literally taste his chemicals with every breath I take. Worse, he likes to use the library computer terminal that sits just over the wall of my carrel. The one-and-only carrel for plugging in a laptop.
I swear, whatever he’s putting on himself must be outlawed by treaties against chemical warfare. Thank heaven I only encounter him about once a week.
Still, it’s mostly pleasant here in my little corner of the library. The librarians are nice when they talk with me and even nicer for leaving me alone. This is a good time.
But it’ll be nice as summer fades and fall darkness closes in, to warm myself with home Internet again. And enjoy the quiet and the aroma of wet dog and hot tea.
Oh, the perfume bath people!! AGGGGGGH
I am quite sensitive to chemical smells, after a lifetime of asthma. I never spend much time in the “soap” section of stores because I inevitably can’t breathe well for a while even after limited exposure. I don’t use those products in my home, so dish soap – the plain lemon kind – and low scent laundry liquid are about all I buy.
When I was going to church regularly in the old days, there were always several over scented people, but the the killer was one of the ladies who sat in front of us (when I directed the choir), who completely reeked of something that smelled like hot artificial raspberry flavoring, and a cheap one at that.
But they don’t smell it, of course. After the first few moments, their smell mechanism has damped it down a lot, and the longer they wear it, the less they smell it. Which is why they put on so much of it… so they can smell it for at least little while. And they are usually quite unaware of the toxic overload as perceived by others.
Remember when “ZEST” bath soap came out? For a while there it was almost impossible to endure sitting in a meeting with all the folks reeking of that heavy scent. I sat by the door and stepped out sometimes, usually to suck on my asthma inhaler. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be done with that.
“Irish Spring” soap was another killer. I think that’s the real reason we never joined the international court. Ireland would own us after the defamation suit.
Couldn’t you have your blogs all written and ready to just copy and paste into the site once you’ve gone to the library?
That’s sorta what I do a lot. I write them in “notepad” and then it’s really fast easy to paste them wherever I need them. Then you could add links or whatever you need to be online for, but maybe it wouldn’t take so long.
Back in the dead tree days there was a cartoon in a magazine or somewhere showing Mom and Kid in the grocery store “Kitchen Air Fresheners” aisle. Kid was asking, “Don’t they have any that smell like fried chicken?”
Kent — Oh, I do write my blogs that way (except the occasional links post, which requires being online but doesn’t take a lot of time). Most of my hours at the library are spent doing research for articles, responding to emails, doing “lite” news checks, and other non-blog activities.
Actually, I go inside the library only a few hours a week in any case. I can access their wifi from Old Blue if I just need to upload a blog post.