PC Free. . .Way to be???

So for the last two weeks, our family has been entirely without a home computer.

Our old faithful unit, which had been an integral part of our lives since Michael and I met each other (and which, it bears mentioning, actually performed some critical duties in getting us together in the first place), finally shuddered its last, shaky breath. . . and then was no more.  =(

So we ordered a new family member, took out our smart phones, and began the looooooong wait for it to be delivered.

It took right around two weeks for the process to be completed, and here's what I did in that time/took away from this experience:



I did not write any new blog posts.

In all fairness, I hadn't done that in a while anyway.  But! Even though there were a couple of times when I thought of something REALLY GREAT that I wanted to write about. . . I didn't.  Typing out an entire blog post on my phone sounded like nothing short of torture. 

I refused to even dip my toe into that pool of insanity.

Nope.

I would just have to wait.

(. . . which I DID.  Successfully.  And survived.  . . .however, I now have NO idea what it was that I intended to write about.)



I spent my mornings snuggling on the couch.

We all know how it goes.

You're going about your day, something pops into your head, and you want to look it up.  You sit down at the computer, and the very next thing you know it is 4 hours later, and you have 6 tabs open with everything from cute cat pictures to recipes for chicken teriyaki (which turned out just AWFUL, btw) to awesome quotes from Robert Downey Jr.

It's just a horrible, addictive, time-wasting cycle.  A cycle that is doubly devious, because it makes you FEEL as though you are actually accomplishing something.

But. . . we HAD no computer on which to waste our time.  (I mean, we had our phones. . . but we all know that THAT is a horse of a different color.  Entirely.)

So instead of waking up every morning, getting Took situated on the couch with his strawberry milk and two-tarts, and then retreating into my Interwebz World. . . I had no option.

I HAD to snuggle on the couch with my boy.  =)

(Not sure how he will feel, if and when he reads this one day, to discover that he was my next-best option.  

. . . what can I say?  Mommy never claimed to be perfect.  I'm living and learning, just like everybody else.)

But snuggle on the couch is what we did.

On the plus side?

It was wonderful.  Precious bonding time with my precious boy, snuggled up to his back, sweet-smelling curls in my face, tickling my nose.  We giggled, we snuggled, we laughed.

On the down side?

I grew positively LAZY.

He would wake up around 6:30 or so, I would set up a place for us on the couch, make sure he was comfy, then I'd snuggle up to him and doze for intervals of anywhere from 45 seconds to 4 - 5 minutes, while he slurped his night-night juice and watched Caillou.

And OH MY GOD. . .

We watched a veritable shit-load of Caillou.

Seriously.

The theme song is still playing in my head.

It never stops.

I mean. . . seriously.

IT.  NEVER.  STOPS.

("I'm just a kid who's 4, each day I grow some more. . .")

 . . .Now, I'm not saying that the creators of Caillou were INTENTIONALLY doing the work of the devil when they created this theme song. . .
. . .I'm just saying that I'm not currently in a position to rule anything out.  =(

Moving on.

We made some awesome train tracks.

And this is not just mere boasting.  
I am completely serious when I say that our family (and this includes Took, Mister, AND myself) constructed some SERIOUSLY kick-ass train tracks.
 Took got the train set for Christmas last year, and, if we are being honest. . . I have probably enjoyed it at LEAST as much as he has.  

It's just. . . IT IS JUST COMPLETELY AWESOME.

(I NEVER knew that I had a personal fondness for trains.  Never knew it.  And yet. . . here we are.)

Our MOST impressive track, by far, was certainly the double-decker track that Michael designed and we all created together.   Here is our vision, come to life: 

In all honesty, I don't think Took was even HALFWAY as impressed with this creation as his father and I were.

Shoe boxes for supports. . . books stacked for stability. . . worked like a dream. . .

For the love of God.

Enough about trains.

=)

I did not wake up at 3 a.m. to find my husband's side of the bed empty, and a faint glow coming from the computer desk. This is a personal peeve of mine.
 My husband works a rotating swing shift (I have no idea HOW he does it), and so sometimes, when he is going in to work the next night, he will try to stay up late, so that he can sleep late the next day.

The only fly in this ointment is that we have an almost 3 year-old living in the house with us.  And, though I always try mightily, I am not ALWAYS capable of keeping him "quiet" for several hours after waking, so that his father can get his much-needed rest.

As they say in the military:  Eat when you can, sleep when you can.  You never know when you're gonna get another chance.

It is advice that my husband would do well to heed.

Because we have LOTS of toys. . . that make LOTS of noise. . .

And. . . our son has a current fondness for toy hammers.

We caught up on a lot of quality television programming.

(And no.  I am NOT referring to Caillou.)

Without the computer in the kitchen, eating up our time, and stealing our attentions from each other, we found that we had. . . TONS OF TIME!!!

So we watched a lot of really good shows.

(Primarily during dinner time, because we are not, as some might believe, a family of couch-potatoes.)

Our favorite of these (and by "our", I am referring to the family consensus, because my PERSONAL favorite was clearly Game of Thrones) was easily the on-demand episodes of Cosmos.

I love Cosmos.  =D

I just love it.

And Neil DeGrasse Tyson?  Ahhhhh. . .  =)

I wish he could sit by my bed every night, and just TALK until I fall asleep.

 I mean:  SERIOUSLY.

Has "smart as a whip" and "smooth like silk" EVER been combined in a dreamier way?

I.  Think.  Not.

. . .Mister and I were discussing it last night, while viewing last Sunday's episode of Cosmos, and I decided that this program is essentially like a devotional for the non-religious.

"Church" for atheists.

And Mister agreed.

We always feel so in awe, so enraptured, so COMFORTED after every episode.  With so MUCH to think about!!!

Okay. . . I'm fan-girling.

I should really save that for Supernatural and Game of Thrones.

 BOOM.

I took a LOT less quizzes, and probably missed a lot of birthdays.

Without the desktop computer, I found that I was far less inclined to discover Which Star Wars Character Are You? (answer:  James T. Kirk, reboot version),  Where Should You Really Live? (answer:  Middle Earth), and Which Game of Thrones Character Are You? (answer: Khaleesi.  SCORE.)

Also, I have no idea how to find out whose birthday is coming up on the facebook app on my phone.

So. . . if I missed your birthday. . . I am sorry.

But I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I have a really great excuse.

(Which is, essentially, "I forgot, and my phone failed to remind me.")

Sorry.

=(


. . .

So.

Now the computer is back.

Things are back to normal.

And what have I learned?

. . .

Our computer is not inherently evil.

But choosing to waste hours a day on it. . . well. . . I guess that IS.

As always, it is still about choices, and about HOW you choose to fill your days, and spend your time.

Also. . .

The new computer came in a GREAT BIG BOX. . .

Which the Took currently has filled with cars, trucks, orange juice-y, snacks, and, from time to time, himself.

As he watches Caillou.

=)