Since I've retired, I sleep like a baby.  I mean I get up every few hours at night, the days of uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep gone forever.  Fortunately, technology has ameliorate this by making a new coping mechanism available: the tablet or iPad or Kindle.  These devices provide something to do in the dark.  

However, recently a disaster occurred: I had no wi-fi signal at 4:30 a.m.  As a result, after checking my settings, I actually had to get out of bed to check the modem and wireless router.  The lights were on.  I had to make a critical decision: try to diagnose it now or go back to bed for the rest of my beauty sleep.

Panic struck.  How could I find out if Snookie had her kid yet, if Mexico was still in the Little League World Series, which pet was getting the most votes in the Patch, whose kids were registered for what ballet classes, and getting coupons for flowers and manicures?

The problem was the wi-fi router, a device a little under five years old.  This is a disaster, no wi-fi.  My justified technophobia set in, remembering the difficulties in setting up the now dead device.  I anticipated unclear instructions and having long discussions with my Internet provider about settings.  However, technology changes triumphed over all: it took about two minutes to hook up the new device.  (For over two decades I was a fan of the world of devices named for a common part of a building but for recent years I'm a fan of a common type of fruit now being harvested.)

I realized a major learned lesson: our addiction to instant connectivity.  How did we live in the pre-Iraqi Wars era without E-mail and the Internet?  We survived.  We were probably more in touch with the world around us, the shorter length of sun light and cooler nights at this time of year, and actually talking to someone rather than texting.