Technical Difficulties...Please Stand By

Remember that line on your television? Actually, it was 'We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by' with the iconic Indian head test pattern screen. Later, but before color, then it would go to a screen called snow, with the hiss of crashing waves sounds,  until whatever those technical difficulties were got solved.

There might just be a technical difficulty getting back to My Friend Flicka or there could be the announcement we were about to be bombed to smithereens, by Communists, the bad guys of my day. A frission of fear came with these interruptions in our schedules, not much, more like when you know you could get a shock from static electricity, electricity we played with in socks and jabbing fingers. A little danger, but safe danger, because nothing ever happened, or so it seemed to this American at the time. Russia? Soviets? Bombs? Wars? What did we know? Not much, as it turns out.

Now, living in a world when I could electronically be sitting in the living room of a Russian family any time, day or night, it seems impossible how ignorant we were.  And yet, is the world really any smaller?  How many people use this amazing connection of wires and screens and satellites to know more than when we only had 2 or 3 channels on a black and white television and radios with no FM station to be had? I know it isn't like this everywhere, we have this surfeit of time and place as Americans that lets us squander much in the name of escape entertainment. I'm not pointing a finger (there are three pointed back at me, yuk yuk nostalgia), this is just how my head operates in the wee morning hours.

Due to my own technical difficulties, blog/online time yesterday was halted. Yesterday's Tiny Home Tuesday would have gone a bit like this. Pam was kind enough to send along a  page of 9 Tiny Homes You May Love (I like that the title writer open ends us...we don't have to love them, there is no prediction that we will love them - is it my inner rebel without a cause that appreciates the acknowledgment of various tastes?) Also across my radar - not real radar, I don't own a real radar - came 28 Great Homes Smaller than 1,000 Square Feet. Well, some are great in my opinion, some are not. So, 28 Great Homes Smaller than 1,000 Square Feet might be better.

Just in case you've been missing Spike.

So, when life is smaller, is it really bigger? Do we truly become more aware of our space, our surroundings? Is less more, ultimately? Does a plethora of choices improve our world or lead to mediocrity, lowering the bar for quality of everything from goods to food to conversation? Am I on the bias here? Indeed I am, but I know there are many other points of view that would find mine narrow and drab, almost parsinimious if you will. But I'm not. Really.

All of this falls into how we live, how we think about how we live. In 158 sq. feet or 10,000, it's important for some thinking to be going on. If you have 10,000 square feet to live in, I hope you're doing a lot of sharing from the front door.

As most people who read this know, I am a devoted follower of Lloyd Kahn, who has just published his latest book Tiny Homes on the Move. It's well covered by The Flying Tortoise, another blog I really enjoy, so I'll just let you go there until I get a copy of my own! If you want your own copy, you can get it here.

Have a weed it out Wednesday. Do something with wonder.

p.s. Hope all you US East Coasters (and everyone else, yes yes) are prepped for the season and that all will be well.

Culebra Sharing

Sometimes I see sights around here about which I don't really understand enough to explain. At core level, though, I get it. I know I like it and I know it is Culebra, a hand in hand feeling like the proverbial favorite old pair of jeans fitting comfortably, in mind if not in body.

(I miss those jeans, finally worn out with use, not fashion intent - intricately sewn on leather patches, one a handmade birthday gift of smiling lips, my own terrible embroidery, symbolism of the worst sort - astrological signs of myself and a man I thought I was in love with, inside a sun. Yes, that bad and that good)

This has been around throughout most of the holidays, on the main street of town. It's like a...well, you decide what you think. It's always tidy, keeping to its space, not impeding traffic (unless you have a giant trolley to get to the ferry, I suppose).

The building it rests against was once a bar. Fancy that. It is just one of those Culebra things. It will be gone in its time.

What isn't gone and surprised me last night around 8:30 was a parranda truck, complete with police car in the lead, blaring some good music. They passed by too soon for me to gather my wits and my camera; at first I thought it was just a musically loud car until twinkles of many colored lights flashed off my retinas. 

Excuse the awful photo...I gathered my wits and camera but not quite the proper attire to be standing in the street, so I missed the best part and blurred the rest. Drat!

They hung out at Susie's restaurant for quite a while before heading up and around the hill and back to the main road. I thought I was ready, from my shadowed spot, but I wasn't. Parranda post Christmas day? At 8:30 in the evening? I don't remember parrandas going on after Christmas but, there are gaps in that net. If I rightly remember, it's more like, yes, ok Culebra, that was interesting. 

Today there was a post with a link on Lloyd Kahn's blog about a subject I love, wooden spoons, but had only some idea the history and depth and passion so well expressed by Robin Wood. I'm re-hooked, if not on actually carving them, yet, then at least delving into more background and examples. Lloyd has shared his newly found pleasure in carving spoons (if you don't know who Lloyd Kahn is, you're in for a treat. If you liked the Whole Earth Catalog, you like him already; he was one of the editors. If you like building with wood, domes, books on practical, close to the earth living; if you like skateboarding, surfing, fishing, gardening, he's your guy. And if you like someone who can help inspire you to all of those things, he's that too. In his past the middle of 70's, he hasn't stopped living every day in anticipation of 'what's out there and how should I get there? Walk, run, skateboard, zip line, swim?' Ok, I'm totally infatuated impressed and I'm not ashamed.

All of that to say if you have a love of wooden spoons, check out the link!

Another spoon maker, John McAbery (also a brilliant wood sculptor of art pieces). 

I might have posted these before, but they are worth seeing again. 
photo credit - johnmcaberywoodsculptures.com

Have a sensation of surety Saturday. Do something with singularity.