I’m really frustrated right now. I am typing on Word because my internet is acting up. I have satellite internet, due to living in the middle of nowhere, and it is not working very well due to the winter storm that is still going on. I can get onto pages that have loaded before, but it is not letting me log into, or post onto, Blogger. *gggrrrrrr* I already have one post that I finished last night and couldn’t ever get Blogger to load up and post, so I had to copy and paste it into Word.
My Wild Blue satellite covered in ice. It was much worse before this picture was taken.
Don’t get me wrong…I’m thankful that I still have power; I just wish if I had power, that I had internet access as well.
Let me complain about living in a small town just a little bit. As I’ve said before, I love living in a small town, but I hate the lack of technological access out here in the sticks. It is impossible for me to get high speed internet any other way than through satellite internet. The satellite is so much better than dial up, there’s no question about that, but it costs more than most people pay for Cable or DSL, it’s slower and I don’t get to use as much bandwidth as I want. Currently, I am paying $56 a month for the honor of having satellite internet and I’m going to have to upgrade to a higher package because I am using the internet too much. Seriously. I will then be paying over $70 a month for my internet. This is ridiculous. I have to do it though because it will double my speed (from 512kb to 1mb) and I will go from 7,000mb of download to 12,000mb of download. Maybe I’ll be able to watch videos over the internet!
So I guess the price I pay for getting to live in the country is $70 a month in internet fees, higher gas bill because of drive time to everywhere (although I realize a lot of people that live in the burbs and work in the city also have long commutes), and having to drive 100 miles to get to the nearest mall.
Yep…100 miles to the nearest mall. I mean real mall, not a strip mall with four stores in it. That’s because the nearest city is 100 miles away. I went the day after Christmas, but before that it had been June! When I go, I make sure I hit Barnes and Noble and enjoy their Starbucks while skimming through a book or two.
I live in the country 8 miles from my hometown (pop around 2,500) and 10 miles from the town I work in (pop is about the same). For any real grocery shopping, I have to go to the nearest “big” town that’s around 20 miles away (pop 10,000); it has a super center (Wal-Mart with groceries). The town I work in has quite a bit of stuff considering the population is so small, that is because a major highway runs right through it, and they have quite a few travelers stop by because it had been so long since the travelers have gone through a town with any amenities. We have a couple of Pizza places, Blimpie, Subway, McDonalds, Sonic, and the new Taco Bell/KFC. There is a Wal-Mart there, but it is so small that it is practically useless unless you want toothpaste or toilet paper. Oh, and they recently acquired a theater with Three (count them…three) different movies playing at a time!
You should realize that small town populations are not very indicative of how many people actually consider that town their hometown. There are usually more people that live in the rural areas around a small town than actually live within the “city” limits. Only those living within the town’s limits are actually counted in the population.
These are a few of my small town blues, however, I love living in a small town, so stay tuned for a post on all the great things about living in a small town!
No comments:
Post a Comment