listening: It's Bad You Know, RL Burnside
"The great dark trees of the Big Woods stood all around the house and beyond them were other trees and beyond them were more trees. As far as a man could go to north in a day por a week or a whole month there was nothing but woods. There were no people. There were only trees and the wild animals that made their homes amoung them..."
-The Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder
I grew up in a log cabin on 64 acres of no-bones-about-it wildnerness in southern New Hampshire. There were no neighbors. There was, for a very long time, no phone. There was no FOX network. There was sheep and chickens. There were trees.
I loved growing up in the woods until I was about twelve. I read all of the Little House books and felt like they were written for me. I became aware that other people didn't live like this. Other people had cable. Other people had neighbor kids to play with. Other kids didn't think it was fun to chase sheep and play Rock Shop.
As I've gotten older, I've grown to love the solitude and isolation that my parents' house provides. It's quiet. It's beautiful. You can see the stars. I feel like I'm the only person in the world sometimes and I like that.
HOWEVER, there are times when the novelty wears off...waaay off. Like this weekend, for example. New Hampshire got hit by a windo storm Friday night. I made plans to make dinner for Nick at my parents house and watch a movie (I was all period-y and didn't want to go out and drink). I went to Hannafords and bought a pork tenderloin and some fennel and salad and wine and started the drive up. Halfway down my parent's road I realized there were no lights on at the hpouse of the top of the road. When I got to the driveway I saw the tree on the lines.
Great. No friggin' power. I wanted to cook dinner and go pee and watch a movie. I also freaking hate the dark. And it was DARK. The dogs were freaking out. I got nervous and called Nick and he didn't want to come up and I got mad and tried to start a fire in the woodstove and couldn't. I gave up, locked Chip in his crate and went to Nick's to spend the night and get toasty and eat dinner like I wanted. Saturday morning, I woke up and drove back to my parent's house. Still no power. Chip was pissed at me. I had gone grocery shopping before I got home and bought one of those fire starter logs and made a fire. I turned the couch around and opened the grate on the stove and sat and read Little House books all day. It was glorious. It's kind of like my camping. I bloody hate camping. But I like sitting in a warm house and reading in front of a fire. I made tea on the stove and soup. See, I don't mind the no lights thing until it starts getting dark. Then I get nervous. At about 730pm, I called my grandmother.
My grandmother and I have a very strange relationship. I didn't use to like her, at all. She said terrible things to me but I totally respected her for what she did for her family. It wasn't until the whole fam went down to Orlando for my sister's graduation that I really began to see that she is a very cool lady. She's young, I think, for a grandmother (I call her Nana, BTW). And she hates when people treat her like an old lady. She does the whole Red Hat thing. She swears. She goes to church. She's hilarious. I went down to her house and my Nana and I watched Lifetime movies all night.
This morning, while my Nana went to church, I drove home and a lovely PSNH tree truck followed me home. An hour later, voila! there was lights.
And my Little House moment was over.
So I watched "Dr. No".
I think Laura Ingalls would have watched "Dr. No" if she had electricity, too.
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