We’ve been off-line for nearly 72 hours. Our three-year-old DSL modem/wireless router finally breathed its last. I wasn’t about to break out the old dial-up equipment and hook it up. You can’t plug a regular phone line into most of the devices anyway.
I called AT&T and ordered a replacement modem---actually an upgrade. One wonderful aspect of tech is that replacement equipment is always faster and more feature-packed, although not necessarily more reliable. The new modem will arrive on Wednesday.
The withdrawal from the wired-and-wireless world wasn’t pleasant. Our hands shook like Ray Milland’s in Lost Weekend. But the weather was nice. I grabbed a cup of coffee and went outside. People were talking and strolling. They didn’t care about the Texas or Ohio primaries, the gay-marriage case being heard by the California Supreme Court, the credit crunch, NAFTA, or even $100-a-barrel oil. And for a couple of days I didn’t care either.
(I may have involuntarily tapped into the zeitgeist. A NY Times reporter writes about the movement to unplug for one day a week, a “secular Sabbath.”) © 2008 Stephen Yuen
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