Dirtkids

Summer is so confusing, so challenging…every little bit of my soul wants nothing more than to be outside playing (preferably on two wheels) but the pangs of other sports I enjoy or once played draw me back to my computer. I say computer because we only have TV service in one of our three current locations…don’t feel bad for me, I’m happy to say I’ve never watched any of those reality TV shows and feel pretty damn good about it. I digress…

The World Cup is almost over and it’s been a challenging few weeks juggling work and watching/listening to the games streamed over the internet. Thank you www.espn3.com for streaming all the games…if only other networks would take such a bold step to keep us in touch with our sports (ex. Olympics??!?!?!). Soccer has always been the love of my sporting life. Many of the people in my life, places I’ve travelled, stories I have are all a result of years of playing soccer. Safely in retirement, my sporting life is now dominated by two wheels.

The Tour de France…yes, it’s a road bike race but on two wheels nonetheless. Each day currently starts with a review of results, recaps, etc. from the action each day. The sound of Phil Liggett’s voice is like music to my ears…

Stanley Cup playoffs…ok, a little late on this one, I’m no longer playing and technically the playoffs are over before summer starts. If the Sharks aren’t playing my interest dwindles.

Wimbledon…yes, I’ll admit, I secretly wish I’d played tennis…love the sport! Not entirely sure why as it’s nothing like the other sports that interest me.

Yes, baseball is an intentional omission…doesn’t interest me and I found it pretty boring to play.

Then again…there’s the new mountain bike movie I just downloaded. What was I talking about?

Here I sit, typing a blog entry that will have to be posted later.

Despite my enthusiasm for exploring remote, less travelled areas, the fewer people the better, I am occasionally guilty of missing the internet. I’ve never been one to watch much TV, which has been reinforced by the fact that Tom and I only have TV service in one of the three locations where we split our living time. All three locations do have land-line phone service and internet service. The land-line phone service is a necessity for a couple of reasons, two out of three locations have spotty or non-existent cell phone service and more importantly, since I work remotely and regularly participate in conference calls, need to fax, etc. having a land-line becomes important.

So, it was with great frustration that I arrived at our cabin last Thurs night, after a week of driving back from Bishop, shopping for a couple weeks worth of groceries (I’ll get to that later) and loading a trailer with a bed and other items and then driving to the cabin…only to find that our phone here has no dial tone. Oh, and this is the only location with no cell service…of any kind or provider. Since we have no dial tone, we also have no internet connection. It was after 9pm and I needed to at least call Tom and my parents (who helped me load the bed, thanks!) to let them know I’d made it to the cabin ok. The drive to the cabin is relatively remote and sparsely travelled on weeknights, so it’s always good to check in. My saving grace, I guess, is that there is a pay phone at the little store in town. Now can anyone actually remember the last time they used a pay phone, not including travelling abroad??? Me neither. I felt like an idiot trying to read the fine print on the phone about how to make a credit card call. I call AT&T first but of course I’m looped into automated answering system hell. The soonest a tech can come out to the house is Monday. And my appointment window? 8am to 7pm! What the hell? I calm down slightly and make my necessary calls, the last one being to my boss to let him know I won’t be online or available by phone Friday…that I’ll try to make it to cell reception to do a half-ass e-mail/voice-message check.

My first thought was to head back home but it was late, I was exhausted and we were having a debris box delivered Friday to clean up our “yard” of pine needles and leaves for fire season. And Tom was coming Friday night to spend the weekend at the cabin. We also plan to spend a long July 4th weekend here (hence the two weeks of food and no, there are no stores…the nearest true grocery store is at least an hour away).

The lack of phone line has been particularly brutal. We were trying to coordinate riding with a friend Saturday, so I had to call Friday, from another town 20 miles away where I have a cell signal, and come up with a plan since we had no way to contact each other. Then there was no way for me to check on Tom’s progress on the way here…was he ok? Running late? Stopped for food? Nothing, zip, nada. What’s worse is that the first US game of the elimination round of the World Cup was on Saturday and no way to watch, stream or even know the score (by the time I post this, I’ll obviously know the outcome.) It’s Sunday night and again Tom is on the road…with no way to check in. It gets better…the pay phone in town now isn’t working so I had to drive over the mountains to get a cell signal. Dare I ask what happens next?

Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, pony express, morse code, telegrams…geez, I don’t know how people did it. I’ve gotten so dependent on technology, even if just the ability to make a phone call, that I’m not sure what do without it.

Update: AT&T has obviously now fixed the issue, turns out critters gradually chewed through the line but according to the tech it was time to replace the line anyway.

If anyone needs a refresher on how to use a pay phone, call me. Oh wait, you can’t…