Withdrawal - deferred

My internet connection is not working this morning and I have a while to think about what a blessing that could be. It is so easy to get distracted with the daily news and amusements found on Twitter, eavesdrop on the lives of friends on Facebook, look at weather patterns, growing eaglets, zoom around GoogleEarth views. Tuning into the internet gives me distraction from contacting my aunt, gives me reason to delay sorting papers (months worth of bills -fortunately I pay bills with the internet). Stumbling gives me reason to avoid writing my blog – which I am doing now on Word.

I get online with some worthy purpose in mind. Just now I was going to look up some audio books because Neil Gaiman said in his blog that listening to Dickens on audio books helped him to exercise. I figure I could turn down the volume of my chair dancing DVD and play an audio book on the computer, and as he discovered to be true, be less bored … and enriched in the process. But I have some audio files already downloaded, certainly enough to listen to for the small time segments of exercise. And cruising the web for good literature would be a minefield of distractions.

I have an apartment jam packed with worthy projects. My fingers may be flexible enough to play the fiddle again. And I’ve got Garageband and the Amazing Slow Downer programs to put JD Crowe on slow speed enough to play along. And that’s way down on my list.

Near the top is to make origami earrings to wear around as advertisements for the Japan project. The Japan project is to make and sell origami in little boxes (school colors) and donate the proceeds to Red Cross in Japan. They could certainly use some help.

I got this idea when I was bored silly proctoring a statewide assessment test and I began to pray to pass the time. My prayer was answered with an idea. I’d put tiny origami into small origami boxes and sell them as Christmas ornaments etc. and I’d ask my Japan-loving Otaku adolescent grandson to help. If I get a fully formed idea after prayer, I take it pretty seriously.

When I presented the idea to my grandson, he was not eager to do folding - he lacked the confidence – but he was willing to cut paper and I’m hoping to persuade him to do the bookkeeping (which would help with math). There’s a bright but bored student at school who loves to do folding, so I just provide him with fancy paper. That’s another reason to make jewelry during this Easter break: I can make him some to give to his mother/sister.

So I’m recognizing the signs of withdrawal from such a strong habit as the internet. Years ago when I quit smoking I’d periodically pat down my blazers in search of a forgotten pack. Now my mind drifts in the browser direction even as I am enumerating the benefits of not getting online. I usually forget that I don’t pay for my internet connection … I’m picking up something from WiFi. I don’t even know which of my neighbors has the unsecured linksys. I wonder if they have recently learned enough to make their connection secure. Or maybe the commuting neighbor is disconnecting hers. This has happened before, but I have no understanding of why it stopped and why it started back up. So I am left wondering about the future of my connection. Such a philosophical feeling!

But now I see I'm back on line, so I'll post this and get sucked in again for now.