I’m temporarily plumbing depths of procrastination and self loathing that I haven’t seen since my thesis. I should be writing testimony for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to ignore right now, but I’m not. Because it seems futile? Because it’s so impersonal? Because the box we’re supposed to stay in is so small and lame? Maybe this means it’s time for a more different job.
Some folks who lived at Masala when I moved in are moving back to Boulder. I didn’t get to know well enough before they left and got married and reproduced. I’m looking forward to getting to know all three of them better. To maybe having a persistent interaction with a kid. And an excuse to make a bike that carries kids. Always looking for an excuse to make another bike.
Some good friends are leaving the co-op, pulled away by academia. Social churn and transience. It seems strange to be the stable one. Only person in the house that’s been here longer than me now is Lincoln, Our Founder. It’s interesting to see how the relationship with the house changes over time. Still love it, but would be up for another incarnation too. With more stability and people who have all already learned the basic lessons of living together… rather than always having a few people that don’t quite seem to get it. We have most of the money and people that would be required to buy our own place and make it a co-op. But that would be illegal. Which is infuriating. So we’re trying to change the law, but it feels like a distraction — I’d much rather do the work of creating community itself, instead of the meta-work of making it legal to live in communities.
The long slow fall has been wonderful. Golden leaves and freakishly warm days juxtaposed against each other. I sleep out on my little deck every night and watch the stars slowly wheel across the sky as the season changes. Orion and the Pleiades. It’ll be snowy soon. The weather could be completely different in a week.
It’s been a celibate year. The first once since 2001-2002. More than friends, less than lovers, and back to singledom. I’ve felt old this year — a pinched nerve in my neck, lots of gray hairs. I’ve also felt superhuman — a 150 mile bike ride across the continental divide and back.
I need to read more books. I’ve even thought that maybe I need to write a book: Amateur Earthlings. The two might go well together. Long form ideas are the best. Impossible to hold in your head all at once, but wonderful.
I need more quantitative folks in my social sphere. More scientists and engineers. I miss being embedded in a microculture that not only values that kind of knowing, but where it’s the default — where there’s an underlying assumption that people can understand the world that way. Not to say that it’s the only valuable way of knowledge… but it’s my way most of the time, and being outside of that sphere makes me feel like an outsider.
Local politics is both fun and frustrating. I’ve made enemies for the first time. People who actively want to undermine me because of my ideas and values and willingness to participate. That’s been an interesting experience. There are also unexpected, almost uncomfortable allies. It’s interesting to work with someone on something you agree on, while knowing that you disagree on something else, and might end up working against each other there. And of course it all feels glacially slow. There’s always that voice the the back of my head that wants a revolution.
And always that voice in the back of my head that wants a bike tour, too.
