Welcome to the saloon.
Jump off your tired horse, kick your cowboy boots together, and step through the swinging gates into your home away from home. Dusty sunbeams streak through dirty stained-glass windows and shadows fall on your closest friends laughing in a dank and dirty world away from it all. Tip your hat at the girl across the room, slap your pals on the back, and slip onto a cozy stool to trade stories and jokes with the bartender and catch up on all the gossip you missed.
Welcome to the saloon.
Jump onto your cell phone, check your text messages, and log into your email to catch up on forwards from friends. Bleeps and bloops ring from plastic screens as you share laughs with faces in a secret digital world away from it all. Poke the boy across the room, catch up on blogs, and instant message all your friends while skimming all the comments and one-liners you missed.
Losing cell phone service is like temporarily leaving the saloon and heading into the chilly night air for a crisp midnight walk down the black roads of your hometown. It’s a refreshing feeling of clearing your head, finding your thoughts, and finally floating alone through our webby world of loose connections.
It can feel great to walk away from it all. But it sure can feel great to pop back in.
Getting cell phone service back after not having it for a while is like stepping through the swinging doors and joining us all back in the saloon.
Welcome home.
AWESOME!
I’d love to meet you Tuesday, April 26th at The Book of (Even More) Awesome book launch at the Indigo Manulife in Toronto.
Sometimes it’s nice when you’re out of cell phone service range — given that you’re not in an emergency situation or expecting an important call/message … you can detatch from the lifeline for a second and not worry about it.
But all good things must end, and it’s SOOOOOO great when you’re back in the land of technology. I spent this past Saturday at my friend’s parents’ farm and it was a complete and total lost cause on cell service. When I was driving back to town, my phone was all a buzz with texts, emails, and a voicemail. Hallelujah! Cell service!
I LOVE that trailer!
Coming back into service and getting all those notices of texts and such…. I never know who to answer first. Should I go in order they arrived or what? And I’m always in a hurry to try to get back to everyone, let them know I’m back in service and why I couldn’t answer them sooner.
There are good and bad versions of being “out of service”..
When you’re out in the woods camping with your friends, it can be fantastic to be out of range and not have everyone constantly checking their phones or blackberries. It makes it nice to really be away from it all.
When you’re driving out in the deserts of the Southwest, and haven’t seen a gas station in 100 miles and you haven’t had cell reception even longer than that, it can start playing with your nerves and what you would do if anything happened.
But your right, there is nothing better than getting back into range and hearing the little beeps and buzzes signaling all the fun and love that was sent your way while you were out of touch.
I was on a research cruise for 2 months last year, then when hiking in Patagonia for another week. I did not miss my cell phone, the internet, tv, etc. But man did my phone blow up when I turned it back on! I decided that my Facebook account was the best way to return all the messages at once.
yup.. it’s awesome.. :-)
Omg Love it!! Sooo awesome.
I had my cell phone with me thru my semester abroad but couldnt use it. the moment i landed in the states and turned the cell on.. I got my service back!!! One of the awesome moments that made my return home sooo much better
Telephone radiation is deleterious to the ear.
How perfect is this timing?! My phone (for some reason or another) would not connect and get service starting Saturday, so I took it in today and they fixed it. Service? Awesome.
When I visit my mom, I don’t have cell service. The only thing I don’t like about not having serice is, I don’t know if I’ve had a missed call. Most people don’t leave me voice messages and if they called while my phone was out, I will never know until they ask me why I never called them back.
I don’t have good service at my dad’s house. I have enough to text, but if I want to talk to someone I have to go outside.
I do love that video, its so cute.
This happens a lot when you’re traveling long distances by train or bus since some of the routes taken through the country, aka place that AT&T feels doesn’t need service. It happens at my school too, which seems to be a huge dead zone. Sneaky in-class texts are almost impossible and even after leaving campus, you have to restart your phone cuz it tends to stay at a flatline.
I was traveling through Europe for two months last summer and didn’t have my cell phone. The second I landed in the US, I turned on my cell phone. Notifications were going off for about 30 minutes (my email and facebook were synced up to it). I felt pretty awesome.
lack of cell phone reception = the sad part of international travel!
i went to Spain and my iphone was reduced to a digital camera (that could be used to upload pictures to facebook any time i found me some wifi, of course!) I did love that moment of hitting the ground and turning the phone back on – all the voice mails and text messages made me smile :)
It’s pretty evil to have a photo of a child holding a cellphone, as the radiation that’s penetrating and damaging that kid’s brain is obscenely huge. Seriously, do your homework. This is not cool.
Casey : You really are a Negative person. ….don’t get so bogged down looking for faults even in cartoon characters.
oh my god all those texts that come through when the signal comes back. it’s like being able to breathe again. finally! a part of the human race again! haha this post is too funny
The photo is not appropriate with the article. It is not fare. Although the article was very much helpful. I do love that video, its so cute.
I am still in the Stone Age…no Internet on the phone, and I don’t text much, so it’s no biggie if I’m out of range for a bit.
I don’t use my cell phone much either. The only problem is that if someone does text me when it’s turned off (which is most of the time) I don’t get the message until a couple days to a few weeks later and then I have to try and figure out what they were talking about.
It’s a very cute blog, but it’s horse feathers! (that’s cowboy for “ridiculous”) Visitors to this Saloon look like the real deal and Dude! (that’s a cowboy term referring to an Easterner, or anyone in up-scale town clothes) . . . soft hearted rough and tumble cowboy types like these guys in the picture need to keep it real by loving down to earth things. You know, things like drinking Johnnie Walker face to face with their pals at high noon, breaking in wild horses under the hot sun, and reading scented letters. . . um, yes. How can they keep their feet on the ground in our wispy modern world of virtual information clouds if they don’t switch them off their wi-fi and cellphones from time to time? :p
Just kidding – love the trailer
Love the trailer and can’t wait to get my books! In fact, I graduate on May 6 and the book is due to arrive by the 7th…what a great gift!
Don’t often lose service, but my phone did fall in the toilet last week, so no phone for a while. It was kinda nice to have a break.
HOLY CRAP! This is creepy, you put this one up the day after I got my phone turned back on after a month of down time! Well played.
not having a service is really upseting. i like this one :)