I just came back from our place in the woods where I bury my head in the sand for a few days every year.

It's kind of the opposite of the way you recharge the batteries for whatever digital gizmo suits your fancy - instead of plugging it in, I kind of pull the plug out while I'm at Machete Lake.

Indeed, I was quite distraught to learn that our granddaughter's latest digital toy, an iSomethingorother, was actually able to keep her connected with the Internet and the digital avatars that take the place of up-close-and-personal friendships these days.

That was, until the power source died... and we have no facilities up there to effect a recharge (at least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

Now I should interject here, in the midst my Luddite ranting, that there is a major upside to the connectivity (as opposed to personal contact) that the Internet offers. Emma and her family hosted a young lady on an exchange visit from Korea some time ago, and the two girls have kept in touch, often daily, in ways that would not have been possible - or even imagined - when I was her age.

They can write back and forth over a span of minutes, when such distances as separate them would only a few years ago have required days or weeks. They quickly and easily share pictures, drawings, and their favourite songs.

But please don't tell her I approve. I prefer to remain like all the other old fogeys who deem all this texting and twittering nonsense as impersonal and socially destructive.

In the meantime, I will continue to pretend that, when we head off to our hole in the woods every year, modern technology has not yet followed us there.

Indeed, my own cell phone - now several generations old, as electronic devices are measured - remains a truly faithful companion, in that it, too, severs its ties with the outside world while we're up there at our lake near the top of the mountains, ensuring that I can continue my excuse for dealing with surprises when I get back to work, instead of feeling a need to allow the rigours of work break into my vacation time.

According to surveys commissioned by various companies and governments over the past few years, too many Canadians already short-change their time off that way.

And the Computer Age, I recall being told more than once in the glorious 1970s, was going to set us free.

Fat chance, eh?

By being cut off from the rest of the "free" world over the past couple of weeks, I missed:

- the successful completion of Bill Vander Zalm's anti-HST petition;

- the legal contestation of the anti-HST petition by business and other pro-HST interests;

- Elections BC's decision to hold back the anti-HST petition until the legal challenges were resolved;

- vocal expression of concern by the anti-HST petitioners that there was foul play afoot, and the legal challenges were merely a ploy to allow Gordo and his BC Libs to circumvent or at least defer the democratic process;

- the resolution of the anti-HST petition challenges;

- the subsequent release of the anti-HST petition to the Legislature by Elections BC; and

- several triumphant ultimatums coupled with declarations of imminent recall petitions by the anti-HSTers led by Vander Zalm.

So what did I really miss? I suppose there is still plenty of BC Liberal whining ahead.

And I'd happily have missed that, too.

Visit Bob Groeneveld's blog, Editor's Notes, at http://tiny.cc/v7b94 at www.langleyadvance.com

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