Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Living at 128 has it's advantages and its disadvantages. One of the
hardships that i must suffer as a caretaker at 128 is the lack of
heating. Outside a water bottle, a fire on the hearth, or the
occasional cup of tea--which the house silently protests with its
drafty, and often broken or non-existent, windows--the best source of
heating is three or four layers of clothes or my sleeping bag. It's
the kind of cold that inspires revolutionaries to face their
insecurities regarding anarchist chic fashion (black on black with
black patches hand sewn on) and walk around wrapped in their bedding.
One would think that any stray particles radiating heat meandering
about the house's ether would eventually, due to the laws of physics,
rise and accumulate, huddled like a small band of overboard sailors in
frigid seas, in my loft, which is the highest point in the house. But
no. My bedtime reading is too often marred by the sight of my own
breath obscuring the page.

It's a rugged life here on the fringe. Not for the faint of heart or
those without slippers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Mazlow's heirarchy doesn't apply to true anarchists. For those who are just testing the waters (or the icicles), perhaps minimal financial security has its benefits.

I once lived in the attic of house in Newton, Mass. during the dead of winter. No heat except a Franklin stove which radiated warmth for about 3 ft. Unfortunately, for safety reasons my bed was about 10 feet away. It was there I learned with certainty that Mazlow's heirarchy applied very directly to me.

Emiko said...

thats what i miss the most about the great grand america. central heating. ok... you might be destroying the envorinment but one cannot fight the comfort of warmth.. i get very sad when i see my white breath in the moring in my house. and for crying outloud, it doesn't get that cold outside of the house!!! isn't the house a protection from the elements?? then why am i much colder inside the house than out?? what is up with that?? i say.. insulation! WHY DOES MY HOUSE HAVE SHITTY INSULATION!?

Anonymous said...

You need a full-length fleece bathrobe. Works wonders in the dead of Michigan winters.