Datum Line

Mean water level, for instance. A horizontal line from which to measure up and down. I tend to use it more broadly, as a referent point generally. Our social life, especially, is based (conducted, approached) on the idea of normal. Deviation from the norm is generally a bad thing, and always suspect; but I'm allowed latitude because I'm a good cook. Cleaned up and went to town, I was out of everything, and I was going to meet TR for lunch, needed to stop at the library. I went the long way around so I could stop by Aubrey's place down the creek. He and his son run the largest firewood business in the area. A pile of cut and split wood 30 feet by 50 feet, 12 feet high, plus piles of skidded logs and a bone-yard of stumps and crotches. Supplies wood for the vouchers in this part of the county. He wasn't there, but I had a good look around. Quite the operation, and it supplies the income for several people. Cottage industry, though in this case 'cottage' might not apply; several country shacks and a trailer is more to the point. I like living where there are no building codes because you see the most amazing structures. I've had more than my share of meetings with architects, and I'd much rather live amidst indigenous construction. I live in a shack myself, a matter of choice, but nonetheless. What I derive from it is that I no longer work in the outside world, and that all of my time is my own. I don't recommend this, it's just where I find myself. I can walk outside at dawn or sunset and watch the slanted light. I could just as easily have been the lawyer that defended the cop that shot the unarmed black kid in St. Louis. Luck of the draw. An engine, in the back of my brain, is always asking what next? when another storm sweeps in from Minnesota. I assure myself I can deal with whatever, I always have, but I'm no longer quite so sure.