Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

Wednesday, 06 February 2008 21:13

So relaxed I feel like a rubber chicken

Filed in Blog

There’s something to be said for taking a few days off away from the web. Admittedly, all that fresh air and hiking has left me pretty zonked out, but it’s a good kind of zonkedness, the kind with muscles that feel a little stronger and a little more stretched, and a mind more ready to function.

Our RV park rents us space by the four-week stretch, so we decided to reserve a few days ahead and go away for a change of scene. We went to an old, favorite haunt–New Hogan Reservoir and the Army Corps of Engineers campground beside it. It’s in Calaveras County, in the Gold Country, and it’s wonderful and beautiful and shiny.

For three days my only link to the web has been through the occasional Twitter (short blogging message) sent as a text message, and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to do it most of the time. Our activities included reading, writing, eating, going for walks, geocaching, snarfing, and sleep. That’s about it.

I forget, I think, how bad constant access to the web is for me. There’s always one more website to visit, one more post to read or to make. Being away, I discovered that I was not fretting about how many comments I was not answering or whether anything blew up at Markeroni. There’s hope for me yet!

I feel rather renewed, and am hoping to make a schedule for myself that doesn’t involve being online from dawn til dusk. I do have a renewed enthusiasm for writing, and have gotten some long-neglected posts into good enough shape to publish. Geocaching was a fun thing to do, and I expect that this, and snarfing, will be great incentives to get out and walk.

I also cleared a huge backlog of paperwork. We had a big bag of things to shred left over from our old home, and it was kind of like a yoke. Some things just weigh you down. Well, one night we built a fire and I had a sudden thought about what to do with that paper.

A lot of junk went up in flames that night. ;)

It has been an interesting trip, emotionally. I realized partway through that one of its themes was getting rid of old, useless junk–whether it be habits, mindsets or piles of paper. I also realized that I could get very, very used to this wandering lifestyle. It helped me focus on what needs to be done to achieve that and I did some work on getting up the courage to make it happen. From an external point of view, this meant that I filled out some neglected forms and put together some neglected packages.

From an inner standpoint…well…did you know that staring into the flames of a fire is a great way to meditate? :)