The Traces We Leave Behind

There is little one can do without leaving traces of where you have been these days ...

Our updated home monitoring system notifies me when the system is armed/unarmed and also when doors are open; left open; and closed. I have proof of the minute I walk out of the house to when I re-enter.

Add to that, the ability to see exactly when and for how long I may have talked with someone on my cell phone; time stamps on store receipts and text messages and I can account for my actions for pretty much the grand total of yesterday.

I left the house at 8:07 a.m.; arrived to donate blood at 8:26 (I happened to remember the exact time because I was one minute late for my 8:25 appointment); my actual "bleed time" was 11 minutes; add two minutes wait time to that and I have accounted for most of my time there; I stopped at Staples and paid for my purchase at 9:22 a.m.; determined I had enough time to stop in at Winners and see if I could find anything. Thankfully I received a text message at 9:25 a.m. so I immediately finalized my shopping experience and paid for that at 9:26 a.m.; then called the person who texted me at 9:29 a.m.; talked for 21 minutes and 19 seconds; then arrived at my son's farm at exactly 10:31 (still running a minute late, as I was invited to arrive at 10:30 a.m.). I came straight home from my son's and (finally) arrived back home at 3:26 p.m.

I spoke to my younger son for a while then at 6:46 activated the hallway motion detector as I got ready to leave the house to meet a few friends for coffee at 7:15 p.m. I received a text from my friend warning me to bring my sweater because it could be cold in the coffee shop as I was driving up at 7:10 p.m.; and I didn't get back home until 10:28 p.m.; at which time I immediately set the alarm for the night and didn't rearm it until 7:02 this morning.

I could go on and on (and on) but you get the picture. Every where you are, you leave a trace of yourself behind. Evidence of where you have been, what you have done there and security cameras see more than I care to think about.

The traces we leave behind as we walk through our day is scary. If a person truly wanted to fall off the grid, it would take a lot of planning.

On the flip side, if I ever go missing it is a small comfort to know my whereabouts could be narrowed down so easily. I can't wait to fall off the grid when I stay at my son's farm. These connections are making my head spin.