Please note that this blog is old news. When we were in Yellowstone, a few days before I wrote this post, my Uncle Ralph died and we left in a hurry to get home. I’m now reclaiming my life and posting the blogs that have not yet been posted from our Badlands trip. Hope you enjoy my old news.
Not much is happening right now. It’s 7:30 and I’m without a signal. Usually, in my signal-rich life, I’d be reading the NYTimes or the LATimes right now. And this habit has been shattered by my lack of a good signal. Actually, no signal at all. We are camped in the middle of a forest, at about 6,000 feet far away from any town so the powers that be have not seen fit to provide, how shall I say it, communications. More important to communicate to us the danger of bears. Bears are apparently plentiful in these parts but you couldn’t prove it by me. Have only seen two and they were at the other end of the park.
But, as you know by now, I digress!!
Living without signals causes us to pause and reflect. It is no different than all these campers that zero in their satellite dishes looking for their signals. And it is no different than all the young people that run around with their phones in hand doing whatever they do. But being signal-less is a condition. That’s because, I guess, we rely our information. The weather. What will the weather be today? Don’t know. My signal is missing. Guess I’ll look out the window, grab a jacket and step outside. Not knowing, I have selected levis as the pant of the day. And layers. Can’t go wrong with layers. This is just one example of the information we are now lacking as we exist in the forest.
Without a signal, my blogs only exist in my built-in software inside my computer. Once written, as this blog will soon be, I am unable to post the blog. Cut and paste is my modus operandi. Once composed, I cut and paste my work into my blog which is on-line, so to speak. And once that is done, media must be added in the form of pictures, video, music or website links. Having completed that process, I then post the blog and send out 6 group messages alerting the unsuspecting that we’ve been up to something. However, a signal is needed to complete the processes.
Signals also pipe in communications from friends and family. It’s a way to communicate in our modern age. Previously, we may have picked up the phone (not here though, because we have no signal). Or we may have sent a telegram. Or a fax. Or…we may just not have communicated at all. Now, our choices are mind bogging. Shall I email? Facebook? Text? Some people do one thing and not the either. And some people don’t do any of it (my Uncle Ralph). Some people do it all. They are the easiest to stay up with. Yes, a signal lets us all stay up with each other.
Do extroverts miss the signal more than introverts? Just wondering.
So what does a signal-less person do? Well, we read, mostly. Or play scrabble. Or just talk. Last night we decided to split a bison burger at the “lodge” across our dusty parking lot. The lodge has a gift store, a 7-11 type “grocery” store, a reservation desk for travelers that stay at the lodge, and a bar and restaurant. They are signal-less too. And, let it be noted, that the phones have “Out of Service” signs scotched taped to the handsets. Anyway, we meandered over to the restaurant and ordered out burger to split, a wine for moi and a beer for the Rayman. And we talked. Mostly about what our plan for the morning entailed as we were moving on to greener pastures. How long with it take? Shall we hook up the car? (no because there is an almost 2000 foot incline to wrestle). What will do once we are settled in at the Fishing Village location? And as we were winding down our conversation, the Rayman hit his beer glass with his flailing hands and, of course, the glass spilled the beer in my direction. My pants took the brunt of it. The wait staff was not busy (we were there at 5:30) so they came to our rescue (in droves) and the next thing that appeared was a full glass of beer. Oh, my. Our waitress received a handsome tip on top of the tip. And we wattled away happy as clams. As an aside, the bison burger was very, very good.
Speaking of food, without a signal, there is no Epicurious, no Fine Foods, no LA Times and NYTimes which I lean on for menu planning. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I still will purchase a new cookbook now and then but not like I used to. With a zillion recipes on line, a cookbook is a relic unless the author imparts information about cooking, not just recipes. And since we try to keep our weight down in The Dog House, cookbooks are not high on the list of things that are needed when RVing. For this trip, I did bring one cookbook that Ryan, number one son, gave me for Xmas. It features Oregon recipes…sort of an anthology. So, I brought it so that when in Oregon, we can cook some of the dishes together with Ryan. That sounds like great fun to me!!
Without a signal, we are invisible to the outside world. No one knows where we are. Heck, we hardly know where we are!! No one can reach us for anything. We can’t reach anyone for anything. We’re out of it. In more ways than one.
Okay. Okay. Time to get packing. We need to leave by 9:00 and signals beckon. We may find a signal at Fishing Village as it is lakeside on one side and a signal may be able to get through.
Then we will exist again.
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