April 7, 2024<\/p>\n
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Spring and the last crescent of the Purim Moon<\/p>\n
Sunday gratefuls: Generator. High winds. Lodgepole companion ok. Calm now. Travel plans in place. Art and San Francisco. Diane and her town. Internet down. Starlink available but no way to access it. Great Sol illuminating Black Mountain. A certain immediacy blocked. Another immediacy heightened.<\/p>\n
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Generator<\/p>\n
One brief shining: Charging, charging, the docking station for my medical guardian said, going off and on twice, the oxygen concentrator quit, then turned back on, twice, I heard the rumble of the generator\u2019s engine through my wall, those winds that chilled the house yesterday and last night stopped the free flow of electricity from the grid and the internet connection made through Centurylink, glad to have the Kohler generator doing its emergency service.<\/p>\n
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Rare. The DSL is down. So are my mini-splits. If it was colder, I\u2019d turn on the gas heat. Not sure why the mini-splits are down but so are other electrical services on the west side of the house. Irony: the Starlink installation would bypass this problem, but I can\u2019t access it without the internet.<\/p>\n
Change of weather systems can be brutal up here, bringing high winds that break electrical transmission lines and sometimes the telephone lines as well. Apparently what happened last night.<\/p>\n
Might make me reconsider Starlink. If you recall, I dropped it right after I had it installed because of Elon Musk\u2019s anti-semitism. Still, if it\u2019s the only way to have reliable internet\u2026<\/p>\n
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An odd moment when I realized the Centurylink connection was down. How could I host the Ancient Brothers? I can\u2019t. What\u2019s going on in the world? No NYT or WP. Are others up here also without power? Can\u2019t check Nextdoor Neighbor. It\u2019s on the internet. Felt as if a sensory organ had gone quiet.<\/p>\n
There is an apparent immediacy to the internet, one we rely on, one I rely on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet it is only apparent. It is instead highly mediated, requiring electricity, servers, available transmission modalities. Even Zoom or Skype, the video phone calls of Dick Tracy\u2019s wristwatch, take place in cyberspace with no skin in the game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Odd. And telling. I can walk outside as I did a moment ago to get the mail. The Lodgepoles and the Aspen. The Granite and Gneiss. Right there. Great Sol warms me without need of electrical wires or gas piping. I move through space. While in the cyberworld no matter how it might appear we\u2019re always seeing a two-dimensional screen. Even virtual reality doesn\u2019t change that. The only movement for me is fingers on a keyboard or my hand on a computer mouse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just a moment: On April 24th<\/sup> I board Amtrak, find my roomette and settle in for a 34 hour overnight journey to San Francisco. There I\u2019ll settle in to the Chancellor, a boutique hotel on Union Square.<\/p>\n Diane has a comedy night and a trip to Muir Woods planned. We\u2019ll also avail ourselves of a fine restaurant or two. She also has memberships in the Asian Art Museum and two others.<\/p>\n My main intention, my kavanah, for this trip is vacating Shadow Mountain for a bit. After that. Spend time with Diane. Spend time with art, something I feel starved for. See some sights. Test my back.<\/p>\n Bon Voyage to me!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 7, 2024 Spring and the last crescent of the Purim Moon Sunday gratefuls: Generator. High winds. Lodgepole companion ok. Calm now. Travel plans in place. Art and San Francisco. Diane and her town. Internet down. Starlink available but no way to access it. Great Sol illuminating Black Mountain. A certain immediacy blocked. Another … Continue reading Out. And, all aboard!<\/span>