Some R And R And The World Still Stinks

Last week I did not blog because the RVFTLC family took a little camping trip and it was an eye-opening experience in the most positive way.
At some point in the early morning on Tuesday, both Mrs. RVFTLC and my cell phones ran out of juice. Our lighter charger also ran out of juice as in went into a sort of coma. We really just got enough juice on each phone to get some photos. Not as many as we would have liked, but we got some on the cell phone camera.
Memo to self:
Take a regular camera on any trip as a back-up.
The best thing is that there was no Facebook. No looking at news websites. No clue as to the events in the outside world. The closest we came was the one night we went into Lake Arrowhead for dinner and there was sports on the televisions in the Mexican restaurant we ate at. Yet we were strategically placed where there was no television screens. I did get a newspaper for two of the four days, but not for news. After a glance of the sports section, I went to do the crossword puzzle and look at the comics.
We did everything to avoid the outside world for a few days.
The missus and I talked with each other and not just about current events. We spent quality time with our dogs, Barney and Cashew. We walked a lot and took short, easy hikes. And we realized how blessed we are in so many ways others are not.
Then Thursday afternoon, reality.
Coming back into the San Gabriel Valley was . . . a nice traffic jam for no apparent reason. Par for the course.
Now I realized in that moment that there is still the Islamic State. The economy still sucks. Obama is still president. Same-sex marriage is still the law of the land. And of course there is Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner.
In other words, the world went on and in so many ways IT stinks.
But that does not mean one's life has to stink. I believe that it really is what we make of it. And sometimes, we have to take a step back and yes, escape the world to remind ourselves of that.
We can all make some kind of difference in this God-given life. But sometimes, we need a break from real life to remember that. And camping is one way to do that.