parotechnics

On a walk after the storm, the trees look olive green, people and dogs seem nonchalant, and the beach has blown itself onto the road!

So after my musings about how the rain don't really show in these parts, we had a doozie of a storm up here. At midnight while chatting with Madhusree who was in New York complaining it's wet, the wind had been pretty noisy, gaining in speed and sound. And while we spoke I kept trying to turn the lamp on with no success. Took a while before it struck me the lights were out. In a while, so was the phone. My love of nature was severely tested. I could see wires all fallen down, trees that looked like deranged dervishes, all whirling, no grace, and I kept waiting for the lights to come back and not think of being alone on Commercial Street, about movies like The Perfect Storm (although the thought of George Clooney did momentarily distract me) and also about ghosts and serial killers. Finally I reacted to crisis in time honoured way by going to sleep. Lights came back on only around noon. Phones are still iffy. The sun comes and goes. And already people are out jogging. Needless t

In these last few weeks, because I don't have TV and infrequent papers, I've been leading a little old lady life. I listen to NPR, watch birds and I cook. This is cool with me. Because on a day you hear the news, an interview with Gwendolyn Brooks, a radio-doc about kids and Shakespeare, an interview with a new punk-rock band and This American Life , which has lovely rambling perorations on things people's lives are about: ruined reputations, mean pretty girls, conversations in a restaurant or Wire Tap , a show whose host has phone conversations with friends, family and strangers (one today was with an 81 year old woman who specialises in puns. She has made 200 puns about boyfriends which she turned into a storybook and it is now doing very well). I wish we had good radio at home. I wish someone I knew would open up one of them community radio things and hire me to work there doing whatever I want. Anyway I like this texture - it reminds me of the random general knowledge a

They said there was a storm coming. It looked that way. But the rain here isn't like a good tropical torrent. The wind gets very crazy and when you sit inside and it howls around the house, and the trees swing wildly, so you think they're going to fall on top of your roof. But I keep hearing stuff about the rain on the radio and not really seeing the rain. The rain always seems visible ipso facto here - like one of those little notes that's headed 'While you were Gone'

You could say that!