Don's Tuesday Column (delayed due to i-net availability)

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   6/25/2024

Off the grid; out of sorts

While most folks likely don’t spend hours a day on the “Internet of things” perusing and absorbing dozens of articles—news, opinion and analysis—many do have the “world wide web” nearly shunted into their brains. Or, they have their hand-held “phones” front and center in all but driving situations. Or, their “down time” involves streaming everything from sports to movies to other live or recycled tv fare.

I’m admittedly guilty of the first and last conditions, while avoiding the mobile device syndrome; I cherish being free of the constant input that invades every waking moment (apparently) of those so connected. I like to walk and sit “head up,” shall we say.

Whatever category you fall into, it’s probably rare that you are literally without any of the above as there are fewer and fewer locations lacking the wi-fi signals. Companies are wont to provide customers with seamless coverage; it’s what they pay for.

There are, however, those few cherished spots to be found if one camps further and further—not including hiking to remote areas—from towers and such. There are the mental and emotional benefits of admiring nature’s mountains, lakes, streams, and the ocean. On the other hand, to be cut off from phone service, email and all but a GPS map?

We’ve found two locations, of many I’m sure, where drive-in camping involves such electronic isolation; decades ago, a simple cell phone signal was marginal in many places. We had a “booster” antenna for use at some lakeside campsites in places where we can now routinely watch, say, a Trump rally, with live audio and video.

The first one is in the Hells Canyon area of the Idaho/Oregon border, where tucked-away campgrounds come with negatives: no water, no phone or wi-fi, nearly-no fees, and often no neighbors. Connectivity requires an 18-mile drive to the town of Half Way (“to where,” you might say). It’s routine for folks to sit in a booth, and order a few things while connecting devices if they have service.

One of our favorite places for that is Stanley Lake, just outside Stanley, Idaho, about 120 winding miles northeast of Boise. The population sign used to say 80 but has “surged” to 117. That’s year-round, of course, as the summer brings thousands to raft, kayak, camp, sightsee the majestic Sawtooth Range, and attend festivals. At 6,500-feet elevation, we cherish the daytime highs in the 70s, even 80s. Recent weather forecasts remind us that Red Bluff spends most summer days in the 100+ range.

The main motel/restaurant/bar has wi-fi but Barb’s phone is “hot spot” capable, so a few hours can allow for perusing accumulated emailed lists of links to nearly endless articles that, over a week or two, become less and less relevant to, well, life. Many outrages become “so, what else is new?” You wonder if they can’t just take a brake from the partisan pitched battles and culture wars. Oh, that’s right, there’s a debate and election coming up.

You get the picture, I’m sure, and it’s a magnificent picture of Mt. McGowan across the lake, whose craigs and formations assume a variety of imagined shapes as the sun lowers and casts shadows and colors. The small lake allows motorboats but nobody speeds around; it’s best for paddled craft and fishing. We once saw a canoe tip over and could only watch and pray as the couple and their dog made it to shore.

We both have had to endure a coughing/bronchial cold that hangs on for weeks. Bad luck of the draw, I guess, but if you have to dial activity down to recover and recuperate, it might as well be in a majestic locale. The sore diaphragm and congestion are a pain but would be a pain back home in 106-degree heat.

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I saw where Red Bluff is the 5^th most dangerous municipality in California (https://ehlinelaw.com “Most dangerous cities in California”). Are you as shocked as us to learn that, assuming it’s accurate?

Hence, I come down on the side of Sheriff Kain in his dispute with Administrator Hydrick over funding for law enforcement. Budgetary games are out of line when it comes to our safety.

I regret having to take exception to Mr. Stellar’s insertion of anti-Trump rhetoric in his columns. The editor’s clear (to me) directives were/are to focus on local and state issues; there are endless sources of pro- and anti-Trump/Biden material. We have columnists Polman and Reagan to thank for their opposing perspectives.

To castigate J. D. Vance, a Senator from Ohio, over his alignment with former President Trump—as well as recycling the long-debunked slander that Trump told people to “inject bleach” to fight COVID (a few minutes research disproves it)—is as unnecessary to this page as my telling readers of President Biden’s latest “brain freeze” (God bless his heart). For someone to be incapable of opining on this page without besmirching Trump is the definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Let’s leave the national political “civil war” to other venues, please.