Photo by Flickr user figleaf (hey, that’s me!) Posted under a Creative Commons license.

Just got back from the digital middle of nowhere in the middle of the state of Maine. Had a great time in the real world with what at times seemed like a million relatives but was never more than 200 and was usually less than 15, on islands, on ponds, in hardwood forests, and planes, trains, automobiles, subways, buses, cars, ferries, kayaks, and on foot.

But not, unfortunately, on line!

Even in Boston the connections were sparse. It didn’t help that for the second time in as many years the battery on my Macbook decided to start bulging out of its case instead of, you know, storing and retrieving electricity. Nor did it help that I’ve got an iPhone, and, consequently, cellular and data service from AT&T.

So…

I learned to swim efficiently. I learned how to cook lobster. Even though I vastly prefer crab. Got a lot closer to a lot of in-laws. Read a ton of cheap novels. Listened to the mad calls of loons on the lakes. Watched my children gorge on wild blueberries they could reach by swimming or paddling with their cousins little islands in the lake no too far from shore. Hung out in a wood-fired sauna gossiping, exfoliating with loofahs, and leaping into deliciously cool-not-cold water when we overheated. Got teased for having zero tan. Got up every morning and watched the sun’s reflection glowing off the water through the trees. Napped frequently. Had feverishly erotic dreams, brought on no doubt by the almost complete lack of privacy that comes from too many relatives of too many ages and backgrounds sharing just a bit too little space and a little too much going on at all times for anyone to discretely slip away with their sweetie for a little quiet time.

Anyway, I’ve got a million emails, texts, voice mails, and plain old mail mails to catch up on, dozens of posts I need to polish up and (I hope) post, and… now that I’m back in town… a house that needs keeping up, a family that needs feeding, income that needs, somehow, to be earned, and…

I’m 99%... not quite 100%... glad to be back.

Posting will resume.

Photo by Flickr user figleaf (hey, that’s me!) Used under a Creative Commons license.

Well, it’s certainly convenient to get one’s weather forecast on national newscasts… well, not exactly convenient as much as distracting.

The weather outside, actually, is delightful. Snow in the Puget Sound lowlands is about as common as sandstorms in Ohio so this is actually kind of a treat.

I’m reminded of my first ski trip near Wolf Creek Pass in southern Colorado. We’d intended to do backcountry camping on cross-country skis but the avalanche danger was too high to risk it. So, having made the trip (and booked rooms for a week at the Pegosa Springs Motel (the hot springs kept the open pool comfy warm even at 14 below zero) we rented downhill skis instead.

The snow, so hazardous in the back country, was transcendentally heavenly on groomed courses, even for a complete downhill novice like me. Meeting some of my companions at the bottom of a lift one point one of the more experienced skiers said “that was better than sex” and another said “totally, I mean… how can you have an eleven minute orgasm?”

I wouldn’t have gone that far but it was nice.

Well, if the snowfall here isn’t quite better than sex? It’s better than writing about it. :-) And so I’ll be on a very light posting schedule until the weather returns to our regular Seattle Rain Festival — 40 degrees and raining from October to May… which is part of why I’m able to post so much the rest of the year. :-)

More later. Hope you’re all having as much fun as I’ve been — if not outside then in bed!

(p.s. one of my off-line duties during this extended and extremely-uncharacteristic cold snap — just about 13 degrees Fahrenheit the other morning — is keeping the feeder ice-free for our resident hummingbird. I took this photo last year, I think. I’ll post new ones if I can get the little rascal to hold still long enough.)

figleaf