Life as Naps: Too “connected” ???

Yesterday was the only day all week that wasn’t supposed to rain and thankfully it didn’t. It was beautiful outside, sunny, clear and in the mid-70’s, it was great. Because the house is still on the market I took a couple hours off of work to go home and mow the lawn before it turned into a hay field from all this rain. I mowed and raked the lawn and I still had a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine by myself. So I decided I would pack up Linus and hike the Keuka Lake Outlet Trail. I called L Bird and told her what I was doing and took off for the great outdoors.

On my way down to Penn Yan I decided that I would change my plans and start at the Dresden end of the trail because I had never been on that part of the trail. I was going to call L Bird when I got to the parking area to tell her a few things like where I was starting from, which direction I was hiking, and what I was wearing just in case something horrible happened. You know, something like I fell into quicksand and was transported to another dimension and was never seen from again, then at least the police would know where to put their caution tape so no one else would befall the same fate as me. However when I pulled into the parking lot in Dresden I realized that I had absolutely no cell service, not a single bar. But I figured what the hell, L Bird knew I was hiking and I only planned on being out of touch an hour to an hour and a half tops.

So Linus and I started walking and that’s when it hit me, I am too connected. At first it started whenever I came to an open area I would pull out my cell phone and hold it like I was holding Simba from the Lion King on top of that enormous rock searching for a signal. I would do that for a few minutes while Linus waited impatiently to get moving, then I would finally decide I got crap for reception and put my phone back in my pocket. We would walk along for awhile and I would snap a few pictures but every step we took further down the trail my stomach would sink with such a foreboding that I would almost turn around. I hated being out of touch, I couldn’t even enjoy my alone time. I was petrified that there would be an emergency with L Bird or the girls and because I was out of touch something horrible would happen that could have been prevented if I could be reached. I know, I’m crazy right?

After about a mile and a half of these horrific scenes playing out in my mind, it was too much for me to take so we turned around. We walked back at a normal pace even though I could feel my heart start to thump loud and clear. Eventually we made it back to the jeep and headed back towards civilization and connectivity. It turns out that my thoughts were not totally inaccurate, as soon as I got signal again to my phone it started going off. I had 2 voicemails and a “Call Me” text from L Bird. It turns out that L Bird’s Grandpa called the ambulance and was headed for the hospital. He is 90 or almost 90 and is starting to go through some old age issues. He was admitted to the hospital and is dealing with a few things but overall doing better and that’s the best we can hope for.

So I am really annoyed that I let myself become so connected to this world that I cannot spend any time without my phone. I am old enough to remember the time before cell phones, when you only called when you got somewhere or right before you left someplace. Other than that, you were off the chain and free to roam wherever and you never worried about someone not being able to get in touch with you. Going forward I am going to take some time to become disconnected and out of touch with technology, but it will have to better planned out than my trip yesterday.

Oh yeah, here are a few of the pics I snapped, nothing OMG fantastic but oh well I had other things on my mind, like impending doom lol.