Low Tech Girl In A High Tech World

Hey! So I turned 40 back in June. I have to say that it kind of hit me hard. Oh, they say that 30 is hard, right, but I pretty much cruised through that with a smile on my face. For some reason, though, 40 kind of hit me hard. I think that there were a few reasons for it. One was that I no longer felt "young". I had to finally admit that middle age is creeping up on me and that I am no longer the fun young thing I once was and I can't shake the fact that when I act fun like I used to now its just a sad, middle aged woman trying to be all young and stuff. That may not be the case but it sure as hell feels like it from time to time. Also, I have had a few more bumps and bruises than I did when I was 30. When I was 30, I still felt like my life was going exactly as I wanted it. I was married to my ex, I had two of his children and my divorce and my depression hadn't appeared just yet. That was still about three years off. Now, though, I'm a bit damaged but still ...

This was the summer that wasn't. I think that likely most families have had one or two summers like this scattered throughout their history. In the spring, you start making plans. You decide that you are going to do all of these wonderful things once the kids are done school and once vacation time rolls around. And then, it doesn't. Usually, I'm used to dealing with the kids being away. Their father and I have a pretty good visitation system set up. Because he is so far away, he tends to get them for longer chunks of time. While I am glad that they get to see their father, its difficult to plan things with them since he tends to have them most of the time when school is out. But I can work around that. Youngest has cadets. In the summer, that means she is gone for weeks at a time. This year, she was gone three weeks which cut into her time with her dad. But it was still workable, and as soon as the temperature started to stay above -40, my husband and I started tryi...