It’s fun! It’s cheap! And I think it’s legal!!?

Recently I was visiting a place where there was no internet access and I am a junkie. Living without is unbearable and a wee bit disorienting. I can go to the local library but the hours are somewhat limited and the drive is…well, it’s not across the street. I can go to friends’ homes but the timing and distance are a factor as well. My dear friend had a solution: drive around the neighborhood and find a wireless network that is “unsecured.” True to my PNewS tradition, I tried it so you don’t have to, but you won’t believe how fun this is.

First, this is probably safer done in tandem as driving and surfing for ISPs can be as dangerous as say driving and texting, which by the way is still legal in some states. Open the screen that displays available wireless networks and hit the road. I thought at first I had to refresh that screen to see new networks but it ain’t true. If I drive slowly enough (under 5MPH), the laptop picks things up all on its own! So smart!

I located a very strong signal at the home of someone I don’t particularly care for so it’s big fun to take advantage of that. They are generally a bit paranoid so I am not able to linger but yesterday, I picked up 37 msgs as I cruised by. After that, I come home, read delete respond and take another drive later to send. Bear loves the car so he’s really happy to come along and I drive a Prius so the gas mileage is low. (We don’t go far.)

Last night I was going out to dinner with friends and I was needing an internet fix so I piled up stuff on the passenger seat and kept the laptop open. When I hit the friends’ neighborhood it was like a celebration—there are so darn many networks it’s crazy! The whole screen filled with them. And many of them are named which is another source of entertainment. (Like with passwords, dog names are popular.) As I was driving home after, I passed another neighborhood and was tempted to cruise through and see what the options were but thought I might be going overboard, and it was DARK. The bright light of the computer made me look a little suspicious. At one point, a car came up behind me and followed close behind. I felt so guilty and meekly drove on home. Turns out it was just another one of those “lookie-lous” who drive neighborhoods even at night.

I am keeping my computing to the daylight hours, but not too bright daylight as the reflection can be tough to handle, and to streets that allow for 5MPH or less,. Good cheap entertainment in a not so good cheap world.

PNewL PNewS Volume 16 Issue 5

PNewL PNewS
Volume 16 No. 5 “All the pnews that phits.” January er February 2009

Strain of Thought

Back in the old days, when I had parents, my mother really laid on the “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” bit. It was ironic. It’s not like she wasn’t just a teeny bit critical. And it’s also ironic that while I don’t follow that in conversation so well, it gives me pause when it comes to the PNewS. I have been struggling a bit lately without much nice to say. Ann Marie introduced me to “struggling” as a condition as much as happy sad angry etc. It’s not struggling as in to make ends meet, or in relationship with another person. It’s just me and the world. ’nuf said. As it was written in the office of Professor Smith, No damned excuses.
So I have been waiting for a time when I have nice things to say or if not nice, at least more interesting than the cyclical hoo-ha that goes around my brain. With that moment not immediately in sight, I thought I would wing it.
I was in yoga class recently, a place I find to be very nice. It was a class of only three, also nice. The teacher said that this time, in the beginning of the day, is when women, in particular, are setting out their plan for the day and that right this moment, as we are straining in some wacky position with our knees in our ears and everything else kinda quivering and aching, is not the time to be making grocery lists. I looked at her and she said, “Busted, eh?” I was not making grocery lists by the way, but my thoughts were not, shall we say, in the room. I think the whole being present concept would be really helpful. If only I could “get it.” I am working on it, but forget a lot. I am also working on Pema Chodron’s advice to insert the word “thinking” non-judgmentally as my thoughts get busy when they are supposed to be quiet, but I forget that a lot too.
Meanwhile, it feels like time to communicate something and so here I sit at the computer typing away. It’s 16 degrees out, a new experience for me who has lived in relative warm weather since 1975. It is the second snow day in a row. The roads are icy, the snow thick and blanket-like in the land surrounding my house. The sun is out and the frost sparkles. When I was out walking, I kept wishing I had my camera. I feel lucky that I have managed to live in places where I have always felt there were more pictures to take of scenes I didn’t want to forget. The light just so…the crystal-like sparkle… the cerulean blue sky…the fog or mist or whatever it is that hovers over the fields which looks so mystical with the sun shining through it…the horses all frisky in the cold. I’m even liking the shades of grays and browns in the woods though the green of spring will certainly be welcome.
Well, that was pretty nice. That’s enough for now. Here’s wishing you find the nice-ness in your world.

Things I am Learning & Miscellaneous Observations

• I participated in an activity on Facebook: 25 Random Things About Me, which can be similar to Things I am Learning, so I am going to pop a few of them in here for those of you (smart people) who have not succumbed to the black hole of time that Facebook is.

• #23. My favorite place these days is the library. Volunteering at the Sanibel Library, everyone loved it there—it’s a remarkable place—and I told people it was the happiest place on earth (sorry Disney), but now that I am hanging out at the Weaverville Library, I just think it’s the library-ness of it. Such opportunity, comfort, peace.

This past week at the library, I was assigned the task of unloading large boxes of new Books on Tape. I am a huuuuuuge fan of BOT and was thrilled to be able to see, before anyone else, all of the new offerings that will be available soon. It involved inventorying the order and then transferring them from the cardboard boxes they come in from the distributor, to the plastic boxes and sleeves. I then had to cut the original box apart to slip the cover art into the plastic cover of the library-style box. I said to the librarian that this is so up my alley because like quilting, it’s a matter of taking things apart and putting them back together again. The three librarians all turned around with big grins: “We will save this for you because we all hate doing it!” It’s nice to feel needed.

• Another thing I really like about the library is that it is so much more complex than I thought it was. I listen to the librarians talk and realize how many systems and details there are to keep the place running smoothly.

• #5. I can’t seem to own enough shoes.

I always find this kind of interesting. I am not a clothes horse sort, but I have long narrow hard-to-fit feet and so I often allow myself a new pair of shoes when they fit. And then again and again and again. And I never seem to have the right pair for every occasion though I often wear the same ones over and over.

• I am still getting used to my new house. One of the things that takes getting used to: the vinyl siding speaks to me. I know the second the sun comes out in cold weather because it kinda squirtchles. I can’t find a word in my vocabulary, so let’s say squirtchle. Kind of a squiggley snap crackle pop with lots of tch on the side.

• We have had a cold snowy winter here in western North Carolina. It’s a shift for me but I feel I am adjusting well. It’s quite lovely when the snow hangs around. With the big full moon, I kept running the words from ’Twas the Night Before Christmas: “The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.” It’s magical.
  

• I took a fun class the other day called “Low-tech Screen Printing.” The teacher suggested a product that will remove dried resist from the screens. I said, I don’t clean so I am not be familiar with this—is it a cleaning product? She looked at me oddly. When I came home from the hardware store with a mop (which I hadn’t had for the first seven months of living in this house), I realized I wasn’t exaggerating.

• Chris and I went to see Christo and Jean-Claude the other night. It was a fascinating evening. Just standing in front of the crowd, they were entertaining. They have been together since 1958—they were born in the same hour of the same day of the same year. (Both are 73 years old.) They are working on a couple projects now—one is hanging fabric panels over the Arkansas River in Colorado. They are in the process of raising $2million for an environmental impact report. If all goes as well as it could—which it doesn’t usually—the project might happen in 2012. Amazing patience. The Gates in Central Park took something like 26 years. Wrapping the Reichstag took 24 years. Really amazing patience. Their website offers a taste of their style. If interested, check out, http://christojeanneclaude.net/error.shtml

• The NC legislature is debating a ban on “texting” while driving. Can you imagine arguing for it? Talking on the phone is bad enough but this is definitely all about distraction. When I first moved here, there was a grizzly accident on the highway when a trucker hit several cars and killed several people because he was looking at the computer screen in his truck. Some things just shouldn’t be in the front seat of a vehicle…but once again…they didn’t ask me. When I am queen…

• I just participated in my first day of Women Build at the local Habitat for Humanity. The project is completely staffed by, yes, you guessed it, women. It was a blast. The day was gorgeous: bright blue sky and lots of sunshine, though it started chilly and remained very windy. It wasn’t until I was leaving that I realized I had not been quite that physically exhausted since (well, moving was pretty hard) our week of gutting houses in New Orleans. I called Sara who was one of the crew and when I told her I would go back to Women Build, she said, so you are going to prolong the pain over several weeks rather than getting it all in one week? When I told Gini, she asked if I had learned a lot. I paused to think and said, Yes, I learned I never want to stucco anything anywhere ever. And that any physical job hurts if I do it long enough. But as Allison (who wasn’t in New Orleans but was at the Women Build site) said, it’s a good hurt—actually she said it’s a good tired but I bet if I had worded it differently, she would have said the same thing about pain.

Get your calendars out: June will be here before you know it.

Angel Island Picnic #28
Saturday, June 27th Perles Beach
Be there or be square.

“Life may be a chemical electrical process but living is a procession of
uncertainties, one damn thing after another.”
Randy Wayne White, “Black Widow”

It's a snow day!

Unlike some places in the world, everything seems to stop in WNC when it snows. The roads are too wonky for people to drive on them. After much ado about the coming storm, it finally hit late yesterday afternoon. Around ten last night, I thought someone was trying to break in but it was only the wind. I have no idea how one determines how much snow is on the ground but I would guess three inches?, maybe less.

The picture below is for my nephews and their father who gave me the hat and wrote the poem. The hat was my Christmas joke (a longtime family tradition where each family member gets a gift with a poem describing some (hopefully) funny thing relating to the previous year). The poem follows. (I knitted the scarf, the Netflix in my pocket was too late for today's mail pick-up. Darn.)

Moving
by Michael J. Kadas

Sweet ocean breeze
On summer days,
Cool evenings,
No traffic
On Sanibel.
Quiet.

Not

Oh the north,
chill lake winds
crisp crunch of snow
‘Neath slippered feet,
Searching for,
the hidden
Plain Dealer.

Not.

North Carolina,
Like little bear porridge
Not too hot
And not too cold.
But just in case
It’s colder than you think
This fine hat.
Its even pink.

Tis the Season

A friend just sent an email out listing some great non-profits that are looking for money before the end of the year. Despite the state of the economy, many of us could still do more for others. Consider checking out the list at the following address.

Peace.

http://inspiredlegacies.org/resources/tippingpointfund.htm

PNewL PNewS Volume 16, Issue 4

PNewL PNewS
Volume 16 No. 4 “All the pnews that phits.” December 2008

Oh What a Jumbled Life I Weave

Sometimes I think of myself as a self-aware person and then something happens and I recognize that I am clueless. Like I wind up in a house that I lived in off and on for seven years, and I think it will be a mini-vacation with no emotional upheavals. Who am I kidding?

Within 24 hours of arriving on Sanibel, I couldn’t stop crying. It started when I finished “Bowling Across America,” and he talked about missing his dad, and about bowling and family and life. It made me think about my life and happy bowling times), and this being my parent’s home and then my home where I actually found my people and the familiar feels so good.

And Peter and I meant to write a book like “Bowling Across America” only different and how come I seem to have good ideas but never follow through. (See my blog for more) And while life in North Carolina is feeling remarkably good, it’s nothing like returning to the familiar and being the prodigal child. Gini was the one who pointed out the “duh” factor of this whole transition. And Carolyn who has been in this position confirmed it was “normal” to be a wreck. And that helps, I suppose. And as Mom always said, “This too shall pass.”

A couple weeks later, I am facing significant construction projects and the holidays and am oddly looking forward to going “home,” and can’t wait to come back here (so much for being in the moment) but the sky is blue, the breezes are soft, the salty warm musky smells drift in when I sleep. Ups and downs. Life is good.

-----

Things I am Learning
& Miscellaneous Observations

• Perhaps it’s just me but doesn’t it seem like we get a new phone book every couple months?
• In Bhutan, there is a national dress and it is handsome. Men wear ghos which are more complicated than they look. Lonely Planet describes them as “a long robe… [they] hoist the gho to knee length and hold it in place with a woven cloth belt [which] is tightly wound around the waist, and the large pouch formed over it is traditionally used to carry…” anything, including lunch and files and well…anything! I loved the concept and some of our chillip group bought ghos and looked smashing in them. I envied the large pouch and so in Cambodia purchased a cloth bag/purse ($3—probably paid too much) and it held everything including groceries, books, my purse, binoculars and more. When I was in the market, I kept saying I didn’t need a bag, I could put it in here and the women would inevitably peer in with amazement at the seemingly bottomless pit.

Oh back to Bhutan, the women wear kiras which are also more complicated …they are a rectangular piece of cloth that is wrapped around and somehow fastened with clips at the shoulders but can be simplified with a skirt, and an under blouse and a jacket- sorta top. I got the jacket part but skipped the rest. The fabric combinations were fascinating. I am not sure what the fashion police would say (we are talking not just stripes with plaids but clashing colors), but it worked there. I like the idea of a national uniform. It sure would simplify things and the Bhutanese options are very attractive…and the teeny kids in them are darling. Aw heck, the kids there are all just darling. (There is more about my trip to Bhutan on my blog.)
• Cell phone numbers are now available to telemarketers. Call the National DO NOT CALL list at 888-382-1222 from your cell phone or go to http://www.donotcall.gov/.
• Worried about failing eyesight, I was pretty impressed at my relief when I cleaned my glasses and realized my eyes are fine.
• I’m getting really frustrated by photographs. Experiences are so much bigger—the frame cuts the experience down. So many times on my Asian trip I thought/wished I could really remember the experience—the sights, sounds, smells, vastness…the vista of the rice paddies dotted with houses, the houses dotted with chilies drying on their roofs…the light that the butter lamps cast on the altar in the temple, the people who just want their pictures taken and to see it on the screen of the digital camera. All those images have to be mini movie files in my brain ‘cause the single image just doesn’t capture it.
• I never know when I go to the best place first until later.
• Experiences—like the group part of my trip to Bhutan—often seem to end with a whimper rather than a bang. There we were at baggage claim at the Bangkok airport and there were a few goodbyes and then poof. It was over. The end of my whole trip was also a big anti-climax: After close to 30 hours of being upright, I got into my car and drove the 2 ¼ hours from Charlotte to my house. No one welcomed me home, no one at the airport celebrated my successful voyage. It’s kind of funny—it seems to warrant a big brass band and what I get is…well…bed.
• Netflix Alert: I am on a listserv with a bunch of really interesting people, not to mention I have superbly interesting friends and so I keep getting great suggestions of movies I should watch and instead of writing them down, I use my Netflix queue to store that data. Among episodes of “Sex and the City”, “Six Feet Under” and “McLeod’s Daughters” (fun Australian soap about women running a cattle station), I just saw “Natural History of the Chicken” (thanks Evie) and “King Corn”, two really interesting documentaries…very different. The first one is oddly titled, but very entertaining and the latter is making me re-think how I eat. (The woman who recommended “King Corn” has another one coming out about pigs…I can’t wait.) I have many other titles in my queue which come from many sources and it will be interesting to try to remember why they are there by the time they surface. A related note: I recently rented “Lara Croft Tomb Raider” to see the tree that I just saw in Cambodia. Never again will I rent a movie just to see a tree that I actually saw--unless the reviews are better. Life is too short or something like that.
• Speaking of changing eating habits, I was reading the NRDC magazine “OnEarth” and found I may have to re-think the beer I drink. In the Winter 2009 issue, writer Ben Carmichael is attempting to be a locavore when it comes to beer drinking. This is a problem if you live in a lot of the country because hops and barley don’t grow everywhere. The bottom line is drinking a craft brew is way better than drinking one of the big brands. They have a pile of chemicals in them just to “stabilize the foamy head.”
• If you want job security, go to work for Verizon Technical Support (and add Comcast Tech to that too). I can’t see that they will ever NOT need these folks.
• And now for something totally fun: go to http://ecodrivingusa.com/ and click on Virtual Road Test. It’s like a video game only environmentally oriented, and it’s very funny for those of us with lousy hand eye coordination.
• Looking back at “Bowling the West”: go to http://pnewlpnews.blogspot.com

HAPPY MERRY HOHOHO. Here’s to a brighter future.
With lots of good thoughts from the editorial staff here at PNewL PNewS.

----

Things I am Thankful For
I find myself mid-way between the time of giving thanks and making resolutions. For now…I am thankful for
• New neighbors and friends in a new and welcoming place
• Old friends (that is…long term—we are not really that old…) and old neighbors (some of them!)
• Travel
• Relative good health
• I will probably never have to eat bugs. (This is the way I remind myself that my situation, no matter how the economy tanks, is nowhere near what many others in the world face every day.)

Bowling the West: RIP

While many of you won’t remember and many others weren’t reading this back then, once upon a time, my brother Peter and I had a project we called "Bowling the West." We were going to tour the western states, one of us driving while the other was tapping away on a laptop with our observations of bowling alleys and the culture that surrounds them. And then it would become a phenomena with trendy gear and guest appearances. The series would eventually cover the country: “Bowling the Eastern Seaboard”, “Bowling the Midwest” etc. and eventually even, “Bowling the Provinces, eh?” and “Bowling the EU.”

Recently, Evie called to say she had read a review in the local paper of a book called “Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes” (Mike Walsh, St Martin’s Press). I went to my local bookstore and ordered it, ostensibly for Peter for Christmas, but mostly because I wanted to see a) if this guy did a better job than we would have and b) how he managed to get it done and we didn’t.

First of all, it’s not the book we would have written. We wanted ours, of course, to be funny—bowling for most of us is just plain funny—but also to include nuts and bolts information with reviews of not only the bowling facility but also, the snack bar, bathrooms, and safety issues--a travelogue of bowling alleys skewed by our perspective of the world. On the other hand, “Bowling Across America” is a pretty good book. He gets you hooked in with a story about the death of his father who had always wanted to play handball in all 50 states… and off he goes. I would say he has three reasons for his success:

• The subtitle. It’s brilliant and catchy and with “50 States in Rented Shoes” you know he’s not trying to be terribly serious here.


• He’s young (27) and has nothing to lose. His mother loans him her car and he sleeps on friend’s (and friends of friends) couches.


• He spent five years in advertising and wrote press releases and was on radio shows all over the country and a few TV shows. He also solicited sponsorships and again, so far, he actually got one: Miller High Life. I am impressed

It takes some pressure off, knowing that yet another book I thought I could write has been written. This is not all good but it makes me want to write the other three in the pipeline that no one has written yet...just to say I beat someone to the punch. I still think Bowling the West paraphenalia would have made us a lot of money, but not perhaps in this economy.

The Coronation of the New King of Bhutan

The new King, Jigme Khesar Namgyei Wangchuck, has taken the throne in Bhutan...well, actually he has been King for a couple years but they couldn't find an auspicious date to crown him until this year (Astrology is big there. I found this to be true in Cambodia too—if one falls in love with someone born in the "wrong" year, that's it, forget about it.). Mike, one of my fellow travelers, put the new King's coronation speech on his blog (http://www.theurbanbrain.com/denver/2008/11/08/kings-coronation-in-bhutan/#more-1608)
I cut and pasted my favorite part here. Perhaps I will send it to our President-elect.

It is with immense gratitude and humility that at this young age, I assume the sacred duty to serve a special people and country. Throughout my reign I will never rule you as a king. I will protect you as a parent, care for you as a brother and serve you as a son. I shall give you everything and keep nothing; I shall live such a life as a good human being that you may find it worthy to serve as an example for your children; I have no personal goals other than to fulfill your hopes and aspirations. I shall always serve you, day and night, in the spirit of kindness, justice and equality.