Radio On

I had the radio on, listening to some delta blues, Mississippi John Hurt. And a weather alert came on, saying I was fixing to get slammed, so I turned everything off and got out the oil lamps. A few minutes later a squall hit that turned all the trees inside out. Violent winds and a drumming rain that made me wonder what the driveway would be like tomorrow morning. Mature trees whipping around like teenagers. The power and phone are both out in an instant, thunder and lightening, the house is shaking. I'd used most of one of the five-gallon buckets of water, taking a bath yesterday, washing my hair, shaving, so I poured the remainder of that unit (I think of five gallons as a unit) into the stock pot (which I keep on the stove) and set the bucket out under the eave. It was full in scant minutes. It was raining so hard that young green leaves were being stripped from branches. I enjoy a storm like this. There's nothing you can do but watch and listen, dearly pray that your preparations had been adequate. In this case they were. I harvested five gallons of storm water and wondered if it was any different. When the storm moved off to the east, I nosed outside. The air was still electric.The future of the planet, I think, concerns harnessing the energy contained in a single thunder cell. Storage is the problem. It's heat, right? You could probably store it in a bar of lead. We know it's possible to attract lightening, hold up a metal pole, but what do you do with it then? I'm convinced the answer concerns heavy metals and heat. A few billion BTU's is not to be sneezed at. Oddly still and quiet morning. Left home early, in case there was a tree down on the driveway or on Mackletree, and I did have to haul some brush off the road but nothing major. Stopped and got a sausage/egg biscuit at the gas station formerly known as Bodie's, now I think it's called Weavers Kwik Stop, but we all still refer to it as Bodie's. Spent most of the day cleaning on the third floor, where we're going to store the African Show (as yet unnamed), and hauling debris to the dumpster. One of the trips I was standing there, thinking about the premier dumpster diving fiend in the world, my good friend Kim, and I remembered he (and his brothers) had a significant piece of hemp rope they had pulled from a dumpster, a single piece, 600 feet long, two inches in diameter. Later, when I got home, had gotten that first drink and rolled a smoke, I started thinking about that piece of rope, and how I wanted to do an installation with it. Just wind it around the Richards gallery, plucking up the occasional strand, but leaving most of it on the floor. Five times around. This could be very cool. I see it in my mind's eye. I called Kim and he would loan the rope and come up for the installation. I could hear his brain working. What it comes down to is knowing the right people. My 'A' list is a concentrated thing, I know the best people in the world.