A Long Weekend Without Wifi

I hope everyone had a Happy Fourth! I spent the long weekend at my parents' new cabin on the Allegheny River that is a whopping 400 square feet! It was my first time up there and I really liked it, even though there were 6 of us up there, 6 ft + in height :) It was not unlike a giant slumber party.

The cabin is right on the river, so there was fishing, kayaking, biking, and camp fires.

(This nearby bridge used to be a railroad, but is now a bike path offering beautiful views of the Allegheny River.)

Other than being with family and friends, the best part—I think—about the cabin is the complete and total lack of Wifi. Even phone service was a tad questionable. I did manage to post a few instagram shots and send some texts/brief emails, but that was about all my phone could manage. For four days!

I know bloggers love talking about "disconnecting" which, to me, always feels a bit funny. E.g. "Here's an instagram about disconnecting!! #offline" Wait, what? But, here I am writing a blog post about disconnecting. So. Human beings are balls of contradictions, in my experience, and I am no exception.

I think I now have discovered the only way for me to really disconnect, since I apparently don't possess an ounce of will power. Go somewhere where it just plain doesn't work, no matter how much you want to read blog posts, scroll through your entire facebook feed, and read all your new emails. This reminds me of a quote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and, as he died on this day 85 years ago, I feel it's appropriate to share:

"What can we know? What are we all? Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts."

—Arthur Conan Doyle

He was talking about our collective addiction to Wifi when he wrote that quote, right? ;) I know it's a stretch, but I do feel like I just instinctively spend hoards of time on my phone/computer, even though I aspire not to. So that's why his words came to mind.

With all the offline time at the cabin, I finally cracked open Jane Eyre. And got to feel like I was more embedded in the present moment. (Milan Kundera would be proud.)

Plus, I ate a ton of popsicles.

I hope you all had a happy long weekend filled with popsicles, s'mores, and/or the dessert of your choosing!

p.s. We got some sad news that my grandpa passed on the fourth, so I'll be heading down to D.C. for a funeral this week, so posts will be light. But I did want to share a book review this week, so I'll work on getting that out, but no promises.