Unplugged Summer

It's been an interesting summer of being unconnected and unplugged.  I don't use the computer at work for anything other than work, and using my phone to go online shows me all the disadvantages of using the phone--I have no patience for the small screen and the glitchiness.  I'm already hauling enough stuff to my office each day; I don't want to bring a laptop.

It's been interesting, this experiment.  I'm not completely unconnected.  I listen to NPR on the way to and from work, so I keep up with the big news stories.  But the intricacies escape me.  I often go online to social media sites and wonder what people are talking about.  It's not like in the past when I've wondered why people are getting so worked up or why they aren't more bothered.  No--I genuinely have no idea what on earth they are talking about.

I must say, I don't particularly care.  Once I would have thought I should be more informed.  Once it would have been easier.  Once it might have felt more important.

I wish I could say that I'm filling the empty space with writing, with reading.  But no, on the week days, I go to work, I come home, and I'm asleep not much later.  That, too, is an interesting experience.  I check my phone once or twice a day to see if there's a message.  But it's like I've fallen into a distant time, when an emergency would have to wait for my off-duty time before I got the message.

I'm also using a DOS based system to enter chart notes.  It reminds me of the earliest days of Microsoft Word, using spell check and grammar check.  In some ways, I prefer it.  Let me write, and then give me corrections.  So far, the corrections are correct, unlike 2025 versions of the software.  Sigh.

I'm trying to remember when I last used a DOS based system on a daily basis:  maybe 1992 or so?  Probably before Microsoft Windows came out in 1995 or so.  I am feeling my age.

But it also feels like those days in other, more delightful ways.  I feel like I have several future paths that may open up at any moment, if I can just keep juggling.  It feels very last days of grad school lately.  And in some ways, it is.