Question of the day.... in These titles mean nothing.

Would you rather/be more likely/find most desirable/etc. give up your favorite beverage or the internet?

I realize we are talking apples and oranges here but still.....

Both are possible things to do and either would probably change your life to some degree or maybe to a vast degree, but you could do either. Maybe even both.

I’m wearing the underwear I bought with the money I saved in January by not drinking diet soda. The underwear were cheap but they were a good buy and they are comfortable and look not too bad. Of course by the first of March I had my Pepsi habit back. I now can drink the sugar kind too so that’s even better. Or worse, more likely. (I’m not a huge drinker of soda but when I’m not drinking it I feel virtuous and I save enough money to buy cheap (but stylish) underwear. I could use the money for other self indulgences too.... if I were so inclined.

Giving up the internet so far has saved me no money. The fifty bucks is still on my electrical bill ever month. Jim indulges. (By the way the new improved internet turned out to be impossible. I am still too far into the sticks to have decent internet. Sad. Surrounding hills are involved too.)

I’m at the Decorah library. It’s pretty much empty at 1 pm on a Friday afternoon. Smart phones have really really reduced the usage of public computers. I’m using number 9 and I am the only person here. It’s a lovely place. Decorah is style personified. Its college is a big advertiser on Minnesota public radio. Send your kids to a calm safe school and enjoy your visits to calm safe and stylish Decorah.

The library itself is on the court house square. It is the old post office and it’s a lovely repurposing of a gracious old building. I’m in a large oblong room with big old fashioned windows - the kind they had before the energy crisis - facing north and east. I’‘m sure the window are energy efficient but they still look like the old ones - they fill the wall openings that were made for letting daylight inside. The lower sections are open - it’s that kind of day - the door at my bank was open too. Street sounds come in and there is some kind of background hum. There are three ceiling fans. A hum of voices from the desk. A woman is rearranging some books. It’s quiet but not isolated. Happy quiet.

I found another Donald Hall book in the fifty cent book shelves in the entry. It’s called The Best Day the Worst Day and it’s subtitled Life with Jane Kenyon. Jane was his poet wife, his second wife, a student of his. She died in her 40s of cancer. I’m on a Donald Hall kick lately. I got another book of his from the fifty cent shelf last time - memoirs of his experiences with other poets: Frost, Pound, Dylan Thomas and T.S. Elliot. It was a retired book from the Missoula Montana library. I love books history, their contents, their lives before me.

I also read a book of his poems called The Back Chamber. Grandson Will and I read one of his serious sorta adult poems early one morning last weekend. The family has been staying at my house for the first time in a long time. It’s been fun. Will is into baseball. His team is the Orioles and he wore the cap most of the weekend. The poem was a 9x9x9 poem. Will and I liked that. Nine strikes, nine innings. Nine syllables times nine lines times nine stanzas. Will knows about stanzas. I wrote some 9x9 poems but so far haven’t gotten to 9x9x9. I intended to inflict them on you but I don’t have my notebook with me.

When I get done here, I’m going to Walmart to renew my purple inhaler prescription. I should be very close to hitting my (new higher) deductible so it won’t be quite the sticker shock the first and last times were.

And.... I am going to seriously shop for a new computer. I know what I want - well that’s wrong. I really don’t want anything. I would rather come here once in a rare while and type in this tall semi-quiet room. But not having a computer seems like an irresponsible thing to do. I have used Jim’s a few times but I don’t want to screw it up and there are things I need to have my own computer to do.

I really enjoy my life without the internet. I like the openness to my time. It’s a lot like giving up television. Your time becomes your own. You aren’t always thinking of the next time you’ll be on. You no longer expect the perfect note to change your life. The perfect word. The perfect picture. The perfect bit of gossip.

I’ve been enjoying my million books. I’ve been enjoying freedom. I felt like I was more here and in the moment when my kids were home last weekend. I had things to say. I listened to them. I cooked two chickens. Gracie and I are thinking about taking walks. I dug around the rose bushes. I think my own thoughts. I write a little bit - reference the nines.

So… I guess I’m looking for a compromise. A day a week? An hour a day? And when it’s not fun anymore I will quit. I will quit even if it is still fun if the time runs out.

Wish me luck.
Moderation.
Happy weekend everyone.