Sunday, February 16, 2003

Nor'easter On The Way It's 12 degrees outside right now but with the wind chill it feels like zero. We're looking at about two feet of snow here tomorrow so it looks like we'll be hunkered down for the day. I decided to make the most of the time and avoid cabin fever in a number of ways. First, I went to IKEA to buy some storage units for that long put-off task of reorganizing our duplex apartment. When I got there I thought it was Christmas! I'd never seen such a huge crowd even during the holidays. I guess everybody up here must have had the same idea I had. That's a departure from the usual rush to the supermarket to strip the place bare of things like toilet paper. Anyway, I managed to get in and out of there and lived to tell the tale. Now it remains to be seen if, after looking out the window at 5:30am and seeing all the snow, I'll get my lazy butt out of bed to actually start these projects. I also got some more books to add to my ever growing list of unread must-reads, and they all happen to be "For Dummies" books. I wonder if my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Anyway, I got HTML 4 For Dummies, eBay For Dummies, and Office v.X For Mac For Dummies. I originally only went out to get the HTML book so I wouldn't forever be wedded to this template for my blog and I saw Robyn mentioned it somewhere in one of her links at Ain't Too Proud To Blog. Then the consumer in me got the better of my willpower and I bought the other two. It should make for an interesting day, especially since I'm simulataneously reading For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut by Scott Carpenter and his daughter Kris Stoever, and What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson. 9:01:18 PM    Go Ahead, make my day  []

The Secrets of the Island I just thought I'd share this interesting email I received from Carolyn Farrar of the Post-Careerist newsgroup: Many people, particularly people who are caught up in the rush of city living, will talk about giving it all up some day and heading off for a peaceful life in some quiet corner. At the bottom of this post I've attached a link to a story from The New York Times about a couple who made that move much more aggressively than I can imagine doing. While the story mentions people who admired the couple's choice of isolated self-sufficiency, there were others, of course, who wondered to themselves, "Hmmm ... what could have made them do *that*?" It makes for an interesting story, but I must say I don't think the Kellam's life on Placentia Island would suit me, or even really appeal to me. I think of a story I wrote about a Donegal man who rebuilt a thatched cottage as a holiday home for tourists. Wherever he could, he used original materials for the reconstruction to splendid effect: the floors were a rich old slate, the hearth rebuilt from original stone and brick from another house, the kitchen cabinets were covered with wooden doors painted a deep green, and the spacious, claw-footed bathtub was made for a long soak. But inside two of the kitchen cabinets were a dish washer and a washing machine for laundry, and along with the classic tub in the bathroom were all the modern conveniences and a good strong shower. "People love the look of the traditional Irish cottage," the fellow who built the cottage told me. "But they don't want it to be too traditional."   Living to the Power of Two February 13, 2003 By WILLIAM L. HAMILTON NO man is an island, but a couple was. One of the great love stories of the last century played itself out, alone, off the coast of Maine, unknown but to a handful of people who included the rich and powerful, like David and Margaret Rockefeller and C. Douglas Dillon, as well as the community of lobstermen and their families in the vicinity of Mount Desert Island. Arthur and Nan Kellam, an aviation engineer and his wife, moved to Placentia Island from California in 1949 and lived there, without modern convenience of any kind, its only tenants, for 35 years. 8:42:15 PM    Go Ahead, make my day  []