Gods and Guests
There's still no power or heat at my house. Now there's no phone, either.
Here's a picture I took today of the path to my garden shed.
As you can see, the trees are straining with the weight of their burden. There were lots of downed branches on the road.
Fortunately, the snowplow guys had moved them to the side of the road. Otherwise, I'd still be home rather than sitting in a Vermonty cafe above a very Vermonty bookstore. There's wireless internet here, and cappucino, and I'm hanging out, wondering if the power/heat/phone situation at my house will magically fix itself or if it requires effort on my part. My entire town is without power, so I know they're working on it.
Somewhere, a reader is thinking, "But Cupcake, how can you get milky coffee drinks if there's no power in town?"
Clever reader, you caught me on that technicality. The answer is simple: I'm in the next town. My town is so small that all it is a town hall and a church. And they only open the church on Christmas Eve for a candlelight service. My town has no post office, and the only commerce used to be a guy who sold eggs out of his back porch, but he retired a few years ago.
This town, the big one, shown in this picture:
is a huge metropolis compared to that. For the record, though--they don't really have the Christmas tree lit yet. I used a stock photo from the internet. And in fact the town square doesn't look very festive at the moment, as it is glutted with broken branches from the maple trees in front of the spruce. But that is the town, and in fact the church in the picture just rang its bells as though to say, "Cupcake, tell your readers we say hi!"
I am in a shop you can see lit up to the right of the spruce. If the photo were a webcam, I could leap from my seat, run down the stairs and out into the street to wave at you.
Vermont is wonderful. Oh, it's quirky and weird, too. (If you've ever seen the Chevy Chase movie "Funny Farm", you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like.) For example, here in this cafe, where it's all pretty artsy --the password for the wireless internet is "Ilovekermit"-- there are a bunch of flannel-shirt wearing old guys, the kind you'd expect to see at a diner, not a place that sells chai. They talk with farmer twang and say "Y-yep" using two syllables.
I'll wax poetic about Vermont another time. I just wanted to take advantage of the wireless connection and the electricity (which is recharging my laptop battery so I can work on my novel tonight, by light of candles, if necessary)-- and to tell you all that as of this moment, anyway, I have not been nabbed by Big Foot or anything resembling "Deliverence."
And it wasn't even really that cold last night. It was in the high 20s, but that's nothing around here. One year, it was negative 40 for three weeks in a row.
Please, everyone-- send good power line vibes towards me. Although I will be a little disappointed when the lights and heat come back on. It's interesting to imagine what it would be like if it was always like this. It's not so bad. (Although ask me again when it's negative 40 and I may have a different attitude.)
Well, I'd better get back to my citadel in the forest. Please leave me comments because without phone or internet, I'll be starved for human interaction when I next emerge from the woods, or received the mixed gift of modern technology as a guest at my door again.
Remember how the Greeks thought all guests could be gods in disguise? I wonder if they would have had a god for technology. Maybe they did. (Mass? That's your kind of thing, isn't it?) Certainly, up here in the mountains, we remember that such luxuries are always transients.
Til whenever-- I remain your Green Mountain Cupcake.
Here's a picture I took today of the path to my garden shed.
As you can see, the trees are straining with the weight of their burden. There were lots of downed branches on the road.
Fortunately, the snowplow guys had moved them to the side of the road. Otherwise, I'd still be home rather than sitting in a Vermonty cafe above a very Vermonty bookstore. There's wireless internet here, and cappucino, and I'm hanging out, wondering if the power/heat/phone situation at my house will magically fix itself or if it requires effort on my part. My entire town is without power, so I know they're working on it.
Somewhere, a reader is thinking, "But Cupcake, how can you get milky coffee drinks if there's no power in town?"
Clever reader, you caught me on that technicality. The answer is simple: I'm in the next town. My town is so small that all it is a town hall and a church. And they only open the church on Christmas Eve for a candlelight service. My town has no post office, and the only commerce used to be a guy who sold eggs out of his back porch, but he retired a few years ago.
This town, the big one, shown in this picture:
is a huge metropolis compared to that. For the record, though--they don't really have the Christmas tree lit yet. I used a stock photo from the internet. And in fact the town square doesn't look very festive at the moment, as it is glutted with broken branches from the maple trees in front of the spruce. But that is the town, and in fact the church in the picture just rang its bells as though to say, "Cupcake, tell your readers we say hi!"
I am in a shop you can see lit up to the right of the spruce. If the photo were a webcam, I could leap from my seat, run down the stairs and out into the street to wave at you.
Vermont is wonderful. Oh, it's quirky and weird, too. (If you've ever seen the Chevy Chase movie "Funny Farm", you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like.) For example, here in this cafe, where it's all pretty artsy --the password for the wireless internet is "Ilovekermit"-- there are a bunch of flannel-shirt wearing old guys, the kind you'd expect to see at a diner, not a place that sells chai. They talk with farmer twang and say "Y-yep" using two syllables.
I'll wax poetic about Vermont another time. I just wanted to take advantage of the wireless connection and the electricity (which is recharging my laptop battery so I can work on my novel tonight, by light of candles, if necessary)-- and to tell you all that as of this moment, anyway, I have not been nabbed by Big Foot or anything resembling "Deliverence."
And it wasn't even really that cold last night. It was in the high 20s, but that's nothing around here. One year, it was negative 40 for three weeks in a row.
Please, everyone-- send good power line vibes towards me. Although I will be a little disappointed when the lights and heat come back on. It's interesting to imagine what it would be like if it was always like this. It's not so bad. (Although ask me again when it's negative 40 and I may have a different attitude.)
Well, I'd better get back to my citadel in the forest. Please leave me comments because without phone or internet, I'll be starved for human interaction when I next emerge from the woods, or received the mixed gift of modern technology as a guest at my door again.
Remember how the Greeks thought all guests could be gods in disguise? I wonder if they would have had a god for technology. Maybe they did. (Mass? That's your kind of thing, isn't it?) Certainly, up here in the mountains, we remember that such luxuries are always transients.
Til whenever-- I remain your Green Mountain Cupcake.
posted by Cupcakegrrl at Wednesday, October 26, 2005
2 Comments:
Wow... Sounds wonderful! And from one who hates the winter, that's really saying something. Good luck with the power lines & if they don't come back on, may you find pleasure in the comforts of pen & paper. Stay warm!
Wow I just caught up with this entry and I got namechecked! I don't know much about those crazy Greeks, but I like the idea that any guest could be a god, or at least a millionaire looking to give away untold wads of cash to whomever would offer him\her lodging for the night.
I hope your power gets restored before you end up like another novelist who thought isolation in a remote hotel would be good for his writing...all work and no play makes jack a dull boy...
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