Computer Blackout

For the past year, I've wasted far too much time zoning out in front of this damned computer. Between e-mails, internet movies and TV downloads, Facebook, e-lists, and just plain mindless wandering from URL to URL, I figure I've lost a good six months of my life. Gone... kaput (or is that kapoot?)...whatever... six months never to be seen again. I'm too old for this. At my age, six months is a long, long, time - time that could have been much better applied to doing something creative or useful. So, as of tonight, I'm declaring a week-long computer blackout. I'll pretend my computer suffered a melt down and is in the shop. Of course, since I'm a MAC Person, that scenario is totally ridiculous since we all know MACs are the apex of perfection and never have problems, but I'll try my best to make believe that's the case.

I intend to spend this week in more lofty quests - in other words, things to which I should have been applying myself in the first place. Things like working in the garden, working in my studio, perhaps even plopping my butt down on a piano and/or organ bench and actually (gasp) playing some Bach. Why, I may even pull my flute off the shelf, dust it off, and toot a few notes (my asthma doctor has oft suggested fluting as an excellent way of restoring my sadly desiccated lung function.) There are, of course, many other activities to consider... meditation, petting cats, star gazing, reading, watching sunsets, sitting on my front patio breathing deeply of my roses, stocks and honeysuckle (what my neighbor, Sandy, likes to call my "floral soup".) Then there's taking a drive to the Benicia shoreline to sit in solitude in my car, sketchbook in hand, or going to Michael's to restock my artsy-fartsy supply stash, or going to visit my Sistah, donnio, for a massage, or visiting Dorrin, my chiropractor for an extra adjustment or two, or, how about a trip to Mid City Nursery for a blowout plant acquisition... all possibilities that, frankly, sound quite exciting.

Well... you say... no great loss... she just did a blog blackout for an entire month... so why the "announcement"... like it's some kind of big deal??? Well, to me, it IS some kind of big deal. I'm one of the most undisciplined people I know, and, believe me, this week is going to take some discipline. I know I'll be able to do it because I've told my husband I'm going to do it. He already thinks I spend too much time on the computer, and is constantly reminding me of that fact, so you can bet he's going to be really serious about "monitoring" me. If he even hears me so much as open the computer room door, I'm going to hear about it.

I've prepared myself well for this "exercise". This afternoon, I visited a bunch of my favorite blogs, to get "caught up", got a serious Naveen Andrews hit of photos and YouTube clips, checked the weather, tides and astros sites, plowed through a bunch of Dr. Weil's recipes and listened to a lot of my iTunes jazz tunes. All in preparation for leaving the lid down on my trusty iBook... not just for an hour, not just for a day, but for a whole friggin' week.

See you next Monday.