Evan F.
4/10/11
Period 4/5
One Day in 1983
To be perfectly honest, giving up all my newfangled electronics wasn't hard. For the most part, the only new age doodad I use on a regular basis is my computer. Which, unsurprisingly, was the hardest thing to give up. My phone, on the other hand, was as easy as never having it in the first place. I'm incredibly notorious for being the most difficult person to get a hold of because I never answer my phone or recognize it's existence. Mainly because I don't like talking to people. So I figured cutting all possibility of communication with the outside world wouldn't be much of a difference. On top of that, I don't even watch that much TV. I watch maybe 1 or 2 shows a week, and none of them came on Saturday. In that regard, it wasn't much of a challenge to give it up. Pretty much the only gripe I had was that I couldn't use my computer, and even then it was a small gripe at that.
In general, I will spend about 25% of my down time doing yard work and chores, 25% of my down time in the Rancho Penasquitos reserve hiking around, 30% of my time on the computer, and the remaining 5% doing miscellaneous activities. Changing that spread to 55% of my time in the canyon wasn't much of an effort. Every weekend I'll take a walk down to the Penasquitos watershed in the reserve and boulder the surrounding rocks. Jumping, climbing, running to my little monkey heart's content. Afterward I lie out on the rocks like a lizard and sleep anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Then I pick myself up, hike around a bit looking for interesting things, and head home. So guess what I did when I woke up on Saturday? Hiked, jumped, slept, hiked, ate, slept; in that order. Rattlers are starting to get feisty this time of year, and it's common courtesy to smash the head in of any you come across so that the little kids that come through don't get killed. At least that's what I do. Unfortunately I didn't find any this particular trip. They lucked out this time.
The fact is I'm a redneck with disposable income. I can make do with being outside all the time if need be. I just happen to have a fancy schmancy computer and a big house. My phone is really an effort on my mom's part to make sure she can get a hold of me when she needs to; even though I hardly carry my phone at all (and when I do it's probably dead). If I had it my way, I would have a phone that was only capable of making calls. They used to have those. Shocking right? TV lost its luster when horrible sitcoms started popping up on all my favorite kiddy channels. The fact that something like Jersey Shore exists on TV really stops me from ever hitting the power switch.
In the end, it was a nice excuse for me to get away from the computer desk and spend a little bit more time outside, where I generally like to be anyway. My mom is always barking at my brother, telling him that there's “a whole world out there that he can explore, and he's squandering it inside”. I know that back in the day they didn't have all the newfangled technology we do, and it's good to appreciate the fact we've been born in this day and age.
