I spend about 12-16 hours a day connected/online. That time is spent doing email, surfing the Web, researching various topics for work, browsing products, blogging, and the rare game of Hearts or Spades (okay, very rare). I’ve spent 4 of the last 7 days totally off the grid, and it’s an interesting dichotomy with my regular life.
Normally I get frustrated when I can’t use my PPC-6700 to get an EVDO connection and am stuck at 1x. I had no signal of any kind at either Lake Sonoma (loved it) or Costanoa (nice time, but it was very windy and totally overpriced).
I tend to check email at worst every 10 or so minutes (and that’s without owning a blackberry, which I refuse to use when in North America). I came home to hundreds of emails to read through. Been 2 days, still deleting the ones I don’t need to respond to.
While traveling, I always use my Slingbox to watch something (recently lots of World Cup soccer), typically from my DVR, before going to bed. I watched no TV whatsoever, even though Costanoa actually had wifi access in their main cabin, but I didn’t even have the laptop with me! Funny thing was the Costanoa camping areas even offered power outlets at each ‘site’. I’m proud to say I didn’t use em.
I used exactly three gadgets this week:
- My digital camera (lowly Canon SD100 – anyone have a spare SD450?) – here are the pix we took (including our visiting friends, the Arnowitz family).
- My PPC-6700 to play solitaire before going to sleep (in between good books right now)
- My Nuvi 350 GPS receiver (review coming soon!) to help find a few spots along the way
Bottom line: get yourself off the grid for a few days this summer, it’s a good feeling. No matter how many emails you have to sort through when you are done.