felt like writing a little before the scheduled outage at blogger, which still could catch me if i'm not careful. we've had days of outage, no power for quite some time, and i'm sure some people are quite sick of it. the only problem i have is lack of cooked food, but i've actually been eating more, and hanging around outside a lot as my kids tear around making forts out of fallen trees. there are many differences with life on a permanent power outage/campout, but the univ. and several neighborhoods now have power, and things are being restored steadily back to normal. we got our phone and streetlight back today, but not power yet; we come in to work to use the computer and check in with the world.

aside from that, i don't mind life around a quiet house, full of outside air, though i must say, the more time goes along, the better i hear the generators that power up all across town and stay up, gas engines running everywhere. and probably to do not much more than watch television and keep a beer cool, though i can't speak for everyone. there is a lot of inefficient energy consumption: people making coffee with barbeque grills, etc.; it seems like more power being used than if they just turned on the darn system. but with poles down like toothpicks all over the countryside, i can't blame them for being cautious. they do the best they can.

i ask everyone about the "inland hurricane"...one guy, as close as possible to my own viewpoint, said, i'd look it up on the web, but i can't; power's out. i myself just came in to work tonight at ten or so to do facebook and e-mail (had maybe 130 unread)- and ended up making the inland hurricane pop art below, but not looking it up. maybe later. the storm apparently bounced off the mississippi river, and it was a hurricane, the best they can figure; at any rate, it tore a swath through this area and we'll have a lot less shade this summer. one problem was, ground was so wet from the rains, it couldn't hold onto the trees. another problem was, the trees were so big from growing, they caught a little too much of the wind. more on this later, if i can read about it.

spend the days taking the kids out to the park where we play a lot, and watch big guys chainsaw trees and feed them into a grinder. wouldn't mind cleaning up a few of the trees in my own yard, but i've barely started; the neighbors have walls of tree & brush up against the road, which makes you feel like you're driving through a tunnel at times. if the city doesn't pick it up, it could be a problem- and the city has a lot of other stuff on its mind. it's a different kind of town. power guys all over the place, in bright plastic vests.

to talk to someone, you often have to find them; we talk to the neighbors most (for a change) since we see them a lot. other people, we kind of lose touch with. days of facebook have gone by, but it's mostly banal quizzes but a few photo albums of the hurricane. quick i made pop art out of one; couldn't help it. i should be taking my own photos, but, i've been feeling disconnected from the power source, and way behind in my work. i need to be preparing for dominican republic. i'm way behind. i'll be up here, working on it, i think: that's my new mission. among other things, i have to get started.

among other things i want to point out, is scotland pop art...the first picture in there, not pop, is my aunt who funded the expedition; the photographer is probably my cousin stu, who went and toured the place with her and assorted other relatives including his wife and his brother. they saw ayrshire and various other places; this was about a year ago; they brought back fantastic photos and the whole thing has been on my mind ever since. i listen to scottish music quite a bit, so now i have to figure out how to put it all together, and produce a movie or something...

as for the inland hurricane, i'm still stewing on it. it's got to be a part of the landscape for a while, maybe i'll document a little better, and get something going.