The Power of No Power

Spring has sprung in the land of the bean and the cod, and for the natives, that means Nor'easters.

A spring Nor'easter is a three-day period of cold, wind-driven rain. The name stems from the meteorological pattern itself: A large, swirly, hurricane-like-looking low pressure system that moves up and out over the northeast coast, pushing wind and moisture from the north and east, down into what lies south and west (that would be us.)

Spring Nor'easters are usually worse than other times of year because of flooding. The thaw has started, and groundwater that's been caught up as frost for the past few months begins to melt, draining toward watersheds. Streams and rivers swell with melting snowpack. Add three days of intense rain, and sandbags around subway stops become the order of the day. With the wind blowing trees down onto power lines and rain bedeviling electric junction boxes, transformers blow.

Without warning, the modern conveniences of life are useless. You cannot finish dinner in your electric oven, but instead don foul weather gear, venture out, and use your grill to cook.

You skip the TV, the internet, the texting, and, in playing backgammon by candlelight, are reminded just how much you love someone.

Spring Cleaning

I've been utterly unproductive in my professional life, and I ascribe it spring fever. Here in Beantown, the first four to five consecutive days of daylight after 5:30PM, in combination with daytime temperatures above 50 degrees, tend to set our frost-addled minds all aflutter.

I thought, well, if I can't concentrate on work, I'll have a little fun with my chewy tidbits of bloggy goodness and do some spring cleaning! New layout, updated links, and more meanderings of my middle-aged mind.

Enjoy.

A long dry winter...blog post-wise, that is

I had recently been told by a few friends that they had not heard from me recently, bloggedly speaking, that is. I kept thinking, "What, I just wrote a post the other day!"

That "other day" would be, oh five-and-a-half months ago.

Whoopsie.

A lot can happen in that time, and yet here I am searching for something entertaining to write about. Perhaps that's why I haven't posted anything: I do not feel entertaining.

What I feel is burned out, tired, exhausted. This is the kind of soul-wearying exhaustion that can be remedied with, oh, a seriously intense month of doing nothing but deciding which beach to go to and whether to nap in the sun or out of it.

I'm fried, people...fried to a crispy dark brown, bordering on burned, and there is no relief in sight.