Offline Blogging

I’m in a position I’ve never encountered in all the years I’ve been doing this blog. I will be out of touch electronically, off the grid as the saying goes. Hold on, what does that saying mean actually? Does it mean off the power grid, taking no energy from sources outside of those you generate personally? Does it include electronic networks as well as electric ones? I’m going to have to look that up when I get back in contact with the rest of the networked world.

Which brings me back to my first point—I’m writing this post in a text editor on my laptop for later uploading and publishing when I get reconnected. Right now I’m on a plane. There is wifi for a fee but I don’t really need anything online I can’t wait a few hours for so I’m staying offline for the time being.

We got off this morning with a minimum of fuss. There was fuss, to be sure. I “out fussed” the children by what I will admit was bad mood plus lack of temper control. I’d had it mentally over the past several days. I can’t explain why, It’s not like any one of the things I had to do was complicated or hard. Everything was doable. The job had unknown bounds on it. It was unknowingly large in time commitment. It was a never ending job.

Now that all the bags had been packed and it was time to actually go on the trip, something must have snapped in me because instead of being happy we were finally leaving, I was still focused on all the things I didn’t get done that I now have to do once we get on vacation. So I was cranky. I’m trying to get into vacation mode, but I’m not there yet.  Hopefully soon.

The Big Boy Update: My son has been given some criteria around his screen time while we’re traveling. He can do things on his iPad or switch, but there will be a portion of time he must be reading or doing writing assignments I brought with me from his summer work packet.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Now don’t get excited when I tell you this, because it may not have real significance but my daughter has seen some things lately. As in she wasn’t afraid to go to the neighbor’s houses because she can find her way more confidently there. As in she seems to see things on her iPad—which she hasn’t done for a long time. She used to be able to do a very few things on the iPad but she’s given up anything other than listening on her iPad for a good long while now. Today on the plane she was playing Toca Boo, a game has a black background with a white ghost. She was seeing something and following things on the screen. That’s a change for the positive we think.