Prior to stowing\ntheir gear in the Escalade, Danielle inspected the contents of each\nkids’ backpack. Nothing but laptops, tablets, game consoles, ear\nbuds, speakers and VR goggles. She didn’t find a single toothbrush or\napparel of any kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Should she tell\nthem about the cabin’s lack of WiFi, phone reception or even\ntelevision? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. Merry\nChristmas!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They’d shoot up\ntheir final media fix in the Escalade through one of its three\nInternet-enabled screens. Then what? Cold turkey? Would their be\nwithdrawals? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danielle stopped at\na big box grocery retailer on the way to Manzanita. The kids didn’t\nwant to join her shopping. They streamed shows or snap chatted with\nfriends in Finland and Fredonia. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She loaded up on\nsalty snacks, frozen breakfasts, lunches and dinners, canned energy\ndrinks and bottled mochas. When she hit the wine aisle, she debated\nwhich box of rose to purchase. Two days alone with her kids, no\nInternet?<\/em> She chose the one with 72 tiny glasses silhouetted on\nthe packaging. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one said a word\non the drive. The kids wore headphones or ear buds. Danielle almost\nwished she could rip a fart for some kind of reaction, anything, but\nnothing bubbled in the intestines. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She found a radio\nstation playing 80s and 90s Christmas tunes. She turned it up,\nsettled in, and drove Highway 26 into the Coast Range. The higher she\nclimbed, the thicker the fog. She really didn’t know what she was\ndoing, which is probably what most good parenting is. You just know\nwhen you need a change to try and become a team. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two hours later the\nEscalade turned into a narrow and potholed driveway canopied by\ncedars and hemlocks. Lichen hung down from the branches and brushed\nthe hood of the vehicle. Danielle drove slowly and the kids asked\nwhat was going on. All was quiet on the reception front. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danielle killed the\nCadillac and got out. Holy shit! <\/em>The cabin was tinier than\nsome of the tiny homes for the homeless in Portland. And the homeless\nhad WiFi in their tiny homes! \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She hustled the\nkids out and they carried their gear to the cabin. Danielle punched\nin the security code and they stepped inside. She switched on the\nlights. The d\u00e9cor was straight out Lewis and Clark’s cabin with some\ncoastal watercolors and glass floats throw in for good measure. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKids, I have\nsomething to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained.\nTheir faces blanched. Their lips quivered. Their knees buckled. They\nmarched into the cabin like prisoners of a cyber war that had kicked\ntheir ass. How long until they broke and went insane? Or ran away?\nThey didn’t know how to run away, because they never ran. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n They had never been\nwithout digital devices in their entire lives. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were about to.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steve Jobs wept. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prior to stowing their gear in the Escalade, Danielle inspected the contents of each kids’ backpack. Nothing but laptops, tablets, game consoles, ear buds, speakers and VR goggles. She didn’t find a single toothbrush or apparel of any kind. Should she tell them about the cabin’s lack of WiFi, phone reception or even television? No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5785,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782\/revisions\/5785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}