Cottage Bloggin': Do You Dare Take Your Computer To the Cottage?

Let me preface this post by admitting that I have had to leave the most luxurious cottage I've ever seen in person for a wired coffee house in Bracebridge, due to a failed internet connection at our (rented) woodland palace on Muskoka's Lake Rosseau. (I guess you really can't have everything.) So, four days after writing this post, I am finally able to publish it (the connection failed as I was loading the photos - oh, the agony). So, if you will, come back in time with me to this past Saturday:

This summer getaway is courtesy of my husband's family who thought it was time everyone had a break at the lake (my mother-in-law does nothing if not with style). I brought with me my trusty and tiny Eee PC (so great for travel) and prayed the wireless worked and that the speed was going to allow me to load a page without having to do the laundry to pass the agonising wait time. (Note: And we all know how that turned out.)

Why take along the cyber Ball and Chain when lucky enough to be in a place so perfect for detaching from the drudgery of our daily routines and the world in general, in favour of calm and restful bliss? That's quite a subject of debate. It was the question of the hour for a daytime radio show I caught in the car a few years back, and people were quite fired up. Predictably, it was split between those who said "I'll do what I want, what do you care" and those who were so offended by a modem at a cottage, it seemed the very idea that their neighbours were logged on diminished the quality of their own holiday. At the time, I thought you'd have to be missing a soul to worry about a computer on holiday, and while I wouldn't condemn anyone else's choice, I simply couldn't relate to the mindset of mixing nature with technology in that particular way.

Yet, here I am - blogging from a wicker club chair in the Muskoka room with it's high ceilings and breathtaking view of the deep blue lake, gorgeous skies and lush foliage as far as the eye can see. There's a moose head crafted out of dark wicker mounted on the wall and loons swimming by the dock. This place couldn't feel more Canadian if the guys who founded the Roots Company were sitting next to me (who happen to be American draft dodgers but you get the point).

Oh look - there's someone jetskiing, and my husband's cousins are climbing out of the lake onto the deck and into their waiting Muskoka chairs (their refreshment will abruptly ruined when they take a sip of boiling hot beer from those cans they left in the sun). I hear debate in the kitchen over exactly where Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell's 'compound' is in relation to us (each claims to have it on good authority its whereabouts but the info doesn't match - hee hee).

I'm feeling a bit sheepish about all the precious minutes spent trouble-shooting an at-times dodgy internet connection so I can keep up with my daily posts, but at this time - for me - it's very important that I do. I love my blog and it means something to me. Because, if it didn't, there would be no blog. It's a labour of love that requires a lot of each as any blogger can attest. And, it's being featured on Typepad (I highly recommend them if you're serious about blogging) on Wednesday, July 23 so I am especially keen to post daily and avoid appearing as a lazy blogger. How many more times can I say blog or blogger?

I've just been handed a Bellini - thank you, very refreshing. Is it just me or when you hear 'Bellini' do you think of Kids in the Hall's pudgy and mustacheoed cameo character, Paul Bellini, who was always naked but for a towel wrapped around his waist? I can see from where I'm sitting the bottle of champagne that went into the Bellinis. It is Spumante. It is truly the ginger ale of champagnes. 

Back to the topic at hand: do you or don't you bring the computer to the cottage? I think it depends on necessity (are you working from the cottage) and consensus of your group (will it tick someone off). Though only a few of us were using our computers, no one seemed bothered (whether they were secretly thinking we were soulless ghouls is another matter).

I have to say, blogging from the Muskoka room - with its incredible view, I didn't feel I was missing anything by being inside. Of course I'll get out and play some badminton and take a walk down to the dock with my daughter, so it's a matter of balance. Oh - I caught a frog last night. Or maybe it was a toad. It peed on me. See? Despite my cyber obligations, I am in touch with nature.

Comments

[Ed]

If you lose your internet connection you can drive into Port Carling and use the library's WiFi or their computers. I think the restaurant names Ela's place a few doors down (great breakfast and lunch place)has WiFi as well.

[Katherine]

Ha ha. I agree, an internet connection seems so very un-cottagelike but yet it is exactly this criteria for which I am searching for our September rental! Your rental looks fabulous D!

[Denise @ The Swelle Life]

Ed - excellent website, which I will be linking to in my post. I wish I'd had your intimate knowledge of the Muskoka area, not just for the WiFi tips but for everything else as well. Oh well, I know for next year! D.