Samain and the Moon of New Beginnings
Friday gratefuls: Generator. High Winds. Mountain living. Fresh Snow. Hanukkah. Damaged Dog house. Waiting on Nathan. Shadow and her heartworm meds. Natalie. Dr. Josy. Tara. Eleanor and Kingsley. The Hummingbird. Alan and Joanne. Marilyn and Irv. C.O.R.E. Our electricity co-op. 80433 still 98% dark. Mother Nature can have a heavy hand. All our Wild Neighbors confronted with loss of body heat.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Automatic Transfer Switches
Life Kavannah: Wu Wei Shadow, my Wu Wei mistress
Week Kavannah: Netzach “Endurance and Tenacity: Netzach represents the inner strength and fortitude required to pursue a goal or a passion over a long period, especially when faced with obstacles.”
Becoming a metaPhysician
One brief shining: Maybe an hour or two yesterday evening of connection to the grid, then with a flicker and a thrum, the sound of the generator was once again heard on the Mountain, back to its already over a day of constant on, giving me water, internet, light, warmth, a feeling of security as I switched on my oxygen concentrator last night and went to bed.
Hard to value a generator. The whole home sort that Kate and I bought ran between nine and ten thousand dollars when we bought it well over 15 years ago. A lot more now, I’m sure. I said in the post yesterday that Kate’s heat intolerance made the decision. A big chunk of it, yes. The clincher though was water.
Ever since we moved to Andover in 1994, we’ve lived on properties with their own water and septic. Septic works on gravity and hydraulics which power outages don’t affect. Water however relies on an electric pump. Hand washing. Cooking. Showering. Irrigating in the case of Andover. Not to mention staying hydrated. We plunked down our money.
The proof of its value comes over the years. When it comes on with the easy grace of the automatic transfer, a sigh of relief. The longer it runs, the more grateful I am to have it. Beats lighting with candles, heating with a fireplace meant for aesthetics, and cooking by opening cans or roasting something over the fire. May sound romantic, and if voluntary, sure. But all day, all night for two plus days? Not so much.
Sports: OK. I’ll admit it. I like football. Watched the first half of the Seahawks v Rams last night. Wish I didn’t go to bed at 7:30, but I do. Got crazy near the end and the Seahawks won in over time. I’m allowing myself more football watching even though it includes advertisements which I loathe and pays ridiculous amounts of money to men, enough to make them ignore concussions and later life altering injuries. If I watch, I’m complicit.
Still. The intricacy and the elegance. The struggle. The crash of behemoth linemen, the beautiful running of a back squeezing through the line. A pass arcing just over the arms of a defender then to be caught one-handed. The occasional play that breaks loose: a runback of a kick for a touchdown, a back headed for a first down who breaks a tackle and rumbles on for thirty, forty, fifty yard. Poetry.