Chaos in the Silence

Well, things have finally slowed down a bit. It's probably because it's 9:50 pm, and it's time to go to bed, but actually all of today has felt like a deceleration. That doesn't mean that I haven't felt completely stressed out, but today definitely feels different. I feel almost reverent. What about?

Well....I guess some of it has to do with the fact that moving on makes you see what you have had all along. Change can be like that. The little things that you took for granted become magnified. But, change can also persuade you to cling to the familiar for comfort, even when the familiar has been a negative part of your life. Somehow the annoyances become glossed over. The same thing happens when people die. The bad qualities of the person seem to fade away.

Pretty soon, this house is going to be very silent. All of the boxes will be loaded onto the truck. Very soon, we will find ourselves in an equally silent, barren Belgian home. And although the house will be empty, a certain amount of chaos will exist, simply because we are trying to figure things out in that unfamiliar world.

I Despise Technology Today

Well, I still really like it...but today I am very, very, deeply frustrated by it. Yesterday was the beginning of the trend. I found out that more than half of our electrical items will not work in Belgium. I thought most of them would be useable, but it turns out that many of them need converters and not just outlet adaptors. The Radio Shack guy (can I use brand names on this?) explained to me that several of the items could probably work with a converter, but would need to be unplugged after about 30-40 minutes. Otherwise, they could overheat. Well, who ever heard of unplugging a fondue pot from the power source after 30 minutes? Who plugs in a cordless phone to let it charge and then remembers to unplug it after a half hour? Some of the items could be adapted by changing the plug (the box plugs), but it's usually not worth the hassle. Therefore, many of our things (e.g., baby monitors, phones, hand vac, blender) are going into storage. We will have to buy new (or used) when we get to Belgium.

The other reason I am mad about technology today is because our phone company shut off our DSL. And guess what! They can't turn it back on until next week. It's all because we are going to switch our current number to a very popular VoIP company once we get to Belgium. Well, the two phone companies have it out for each other and are playing the blame game and basically doing nothing to help us. It was my idea to have our current giant phone company give us free dial up for now. That's how I am able to post this today.

I really like and usually enjoy technology. But, it is so annoying when it doesn't work properly or easily. You just don't realize how much you rely on it until it malfunctions or causes inconvenience.