When I'm at False Bluff I'm off grid.
And when I write "I'm off grid" I'm using those words in the most literal sense - because there's no grid to be on.
Not having a grid is a temporary situation. As of a year ago we actually have electric lines running across the property (see previous posts here) and although I've made arrangements to purchase a transformer from ENEL (yeah, you read that right: purchase), I don't have the transformer yet and when I do have it I don't know how much time will pass before the transformer will be installed and after the transformer's been installed I don't know how long before ENEL will install the meter base and after the meter base is installed I don't know how long before the house is even minimally wired (because the wiring just ain't gonna happen unless I'm on site) and once the house is wired I don't know how long it'll be before we get a booster in place so that we have internet service.
Being the first to 'develop' heretofore 'undeveloped' land, property previously almost inaccessible, has its advantages: privacy, beauty, quiet, clear skies, sand with no footprints.....
But there are a few obvious disadvantages as well.
I first posted to this blog on July 16, 2011, and have worked to get a post up about once a week since then. So prior to making a trip to False Bluff, since I know I'm going to be "off grid" for the duration, I write enough posts to cover my absence and then schedule them to be automatically uploaded at specific times, a service Google offers.
This blog is a Google blog and Google makes this easy and Google is reliable about posting what I schedule: Google's handled three months' worth of uploads without breaking a sweat.
Facebook offers the same write-and-schedule-a-post sort of thing that Google offers. The huge difference is that Google delivers - and Facebook doesn't.
Two trips to False Bluff and Facebook blew it both times.
I prep for a time off grid the same way with both Google and Facebook: write a post and put it in the queue.
But Facebook just can't seem to get the job done. Once, Facebook uploaded about four of the sceduled posts and the rest just died in queue. Another time Facebook uploaded a few, intact, but only bits and pieces of the others.
Next trip I'll just post on Facebook before I go: I'M OFF GRID. MORE LATER.
On this Google blog it'll be business as usual.