The Internet is a
wonderful thing. Or a terrible thing. Depending on the user,
and the day, and the attitude of the user at any given moment of any given
day.
Personally, I
couldn’t see what the Big Deal was back when my husband started making
noise about getting a computer. My entire computer experience up to that
point had to do with playing solitaire without shuffling, finding Carmen
San Diego, and doing general office stuff on an internal network.
For the first few
months after the new refurbished computer came to reside at our house, I
dusted it and looked on with bemusement as hubby hunted and pecked his way
across the ‘net. It was cute.
Then one day, he said
“You know honey, we can get email now - wanna set up an email account?”
My horizons grew, and
I began to spend time on the computer keeping in touch with people I used
to have to actually TALK to on the phone.
I can’t remember the
exact moment I discovered Google, but I do know it was life changing and
historic, mainly for my husband, who hasn’t seen his computer since.
Before you feel TOO
sorry for him,
a)
He introduced me to the
computer in the first place. If he had just continued his hunt/peck
web surfing, my house would be clean, the yard would be tidy, and this
pile of laundry wouldn’t be threatening to avalanche down on us - even I
can only play so much solitaire, and after a while you cease to be
concerned about Carmen San Diego - she’s a big girl, where she goes is
really none of OUR business, and
b)
I did take pity on him and
purchase him a shiny new laptop computer one Christmas along with a
wireless router. While I am sadly tied to one spot (at my desk in
the comfiest room of the house, but STILL….) he can roam at will
throughout our domicile and if he REALLY wanted to, could even surf the
‘net from the Throne Room, if you get what I mean…
Along with learning
the ropes of ‘net surfing and the finer points of computer ownership and
use (don’t be deceived, I still can’t tell a megazilch from a gigahurtz),
I found I needed to learn a whole ‘nuther language - Computer Acronym.
In the beginning it
was confusing (is DH Dear Husband or Dancing Hamster?), and it
seemed I was always waiting for others to BRB - from what I could gather,
they were picking up their A’s from the F after L-ing them O.
With the general
trend, downturn, spiral, tanking, apocalyptic cataclysm (the adjective
will change according to the reporter) of the economy, more and more the
acronyms WTSHTF and TEOTWAWKI are making their way out of the realms of
the Furtively Glancing Tinfoil Hat Wearing in an Undisclosed Location (or
FGTHWIAUL’s) crowd and into the general Mom and Pop Just Trying to Do the
Best We Can With What We Have (a.k.a. MAPJTTDTBWCWWWH’s) ‘net where I
hang out. WTSHTF and TEOTWAWKI are usually accompanied by flashy
advertisements for all that leftover Y2K stuff that (thankfully) was
produced to never go bad.
So what to do about
this universal Call to Prep? How much is hype, how much is
true, how much is fanned by those REALLY needing to empty their warehouses
of all the stockpiled cases of MRE’s, and what is your gut feeling
reaction to the happy knowledge that we won’t have an answer till the
reality is full upon us?
In general,
Homesteaders are a thrifty lot.
We’ve learned to use,
re-use, re-tool, re-work, re-pair and re-do every single item till it’s
gasping for breath and begs to just be re-cycled and be done already.
We don’t pinch
pennies, we suck them completely dry.
We’ve been saving for
rainy days since we heard the story of The Flood in the church nursery,
and are such experts that Noah could’ve done well to consult us while
packing.
So the sudden
Mainstream News about Living Green, Being Frugal, Self Sufficiency and
Sustainability is not really News to us at all- it’s our lifestyle.
