There Are More Than A Billion Websites.
It’s quiet in here.
Bill has gone to get the pizza. Dylan – who is finally home from college – has gone upstairs to his room. Shane was already upstairs in his room. The dog has been walked and is resting on a chair in the living room. Unlike our other dog, Loki rests in another room sometimes. He isn’t glued to my legs.
I have checked my emails, played my daily SongPop, browsed a bit through Facebook, and ordered some probiotics online. It’s cold and rainy outside, so I am staying indoors. I await pizza – and movie night, a tradition we’ve had since before the kids were born. (Even though I can no longer eat pizza, we have “pizza and movie night” regularly.)
Until it starts, though, I have nothing to do. I’m thinking ahead to the “empty nest” that is coming, and I’m looking for ways to control the outcome (the kids don’t grow up and leave home?) and I’m realizing that it’s going to be quiet in here a lot of the time.
So I am turning to the internet for help.
I spent many years shopping on eBay for everything I owned as a kid, so that my kids would not be deprived. I spent years after that shopping on Amazon so that I could get anything I wanted just a little more cheaply than in the stores. After I realized that Amazon was being taken over by international sellers and knock-offs were rampant, I shopped on the Target site.
After all those years of online shopping, I then browsed the library catalog. At some point, I found Facebook. At another point, I realized Facebook was emotionally more painful than it was worth. So I started looking for other things to do.
And that’s where I got stuck.
There are more than a billion websites available to me. I can find a job or a friend. I can date or complain about a bad relationship. I can travel virtually or explore new cuisines. I can take classes or learn how to change a flat tire. I can fix my printer, my washing machine, my toilet or my picture hangers. I can build a bookshelf, a closet or a new engine for my lawn mower. I can watch videos about cats who play piano, or I can teach myself a foreign language.
I can jump into dramas of all kinds: support groups, educational meetings, animal rescues, environmental groups, political masses or musical theater. I can delve into the dark web (assuming I could find that) or practice fly fishing in my living room. I can download recipes, calendars, ancestry photos, old restaurant chain logos or TV theme songs from a prior century. I can color, study horticulture or become acquainted with any species of wildlife ever in existence.
But you know what I did today – like every day? I hopped onto Facebook, looked around, then hopped back off of Facebook. I wondered what the heck I should look for on the internet, and then realized I have not one single reason to go anywhere on the internet.
There are more than a billion websites and I can’t think of a single one to browse. I don’t feel like learning. I don’t feel like virtually traveling. And I sure don’t want to get to know any more people.
So I wrote my own blog post instead. After all, I have one of those billion websites. I may as well use it.