Being Home Part 703

You start every day, yes, every day, with coffee. Maybe my mom thinks that if you are wide awake the daily crap weather that afflicts this place won't suck so bad. One piece of this weather alone would not be much of a deterrent, but in conjunction, they spell one thing: Fucking Michigan. There's the high winds off the Great Lakes to drop your temps to the 50s (or -40 depending on the season). Don't let that strand of sunshine peeking through the clouds for 15 seconds confuse you, it's cold as hell outside that door. Then there's the perpetually gray clouds that may 30% of the time actually bring you precipitation, otherwise, the clouds serve no purpose other than to depress every mind. And that 30% rain doesn't really improve much either, because it will rain for a few minutes, may even shine some sun through that rain, and then it will be over. And then in a couple hours when you've decided to go for it and do something outside, well then it will start raining again. I'm really hoping tomorrow's 63 degrees is like a heatwave compared to the 50s I've experienced the last few days. Anything, please.

Let's not forget that any day without snow is considered a good day for construction. 

Michigan: Hell on Earth

The other aspect of being here that one must adjust to is the isolation. If you thought quitting Facebook was tough, well try a lifetime out here. Not only is there no Facebook, there is a scarce possibility of internet, neighbors, etc. The highlight of your week might be that someone drove up your driveway and said hello, or going to the grocery store. This is probably not the setting for most people, but half of me yearns for a life like this, and so I adjust pretty quickly. But even to the mind raised in this setting, one must get a little weird in order to thrive. 

^^Acquired via Auction^^

Getting down with my weird self!

Not that this photo is weird but...

How many of you have made coffee with a vacuum brew coffee machine? Yea, that's what I thought. All sorts of weird trinkets to play with, and science to experience in a place where the mind has time to ponder. I'm not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a clever, resourceful brain that understands how things work. 

As do my parents. This isolation leaves them time to experiment, and explore the stranger side of things. Oh the strange, old, and wonderful things they find! My mother decorates the house with auctioned goods, and my dad repairs old tools and machines from these auctions. My father has even dabbled in artistic book ends made out of old car parts (just because), which my brother informed him fetch $300-400 in the big city.  

This is a place where people can come and farm for the first time in their lives. They can don the arm-length plastic gloves, and shove their arm up a cow's vagina to impregnate her. You can harvest and make your own maple syrup from your maple trees. You can plant 20K+ pine trees on your property because the rate at which the world is deforesting worries you. You can ride pigs and cows, and get into it with your rooster. You may have to defend yourself against a wily rattlesnake or ten, but here, in this isolation, one's mind may be free. 

**Disclaimer: Isolation in this context is meant that I grew up during my adolescence and youth very much alone, with siblings much older, grown and gone, and parents that commuted 2hrs one way every day for employment. Combined with no friends at school, and living in a rural area dominated by rednecks and classlessness.