Wow, it’s been a while since I composed a post on this lively place where I reside in the company of two young people and two, sometimes fractious, dogs in one domicile, engaging with folks in GAV’s other two houses. Or trying to, when we’re not sending messages to each other.
So damn cold and so much snow! Two major periods in the past ten days. Not at all like the InDiana I’m used to. More like Jackson, Wyoming, where I used to live! These pics were taken on different days towards the beginning of the siege. Notice the wind dusting on the porch.
And as ever, winter here brings salt on the streets, which both rusts cars and gets in dogs’ paws. I swear, this morning we I stopped 20 times for me to clean off a paw while Shadow stood there on three legs, looking at me, holding up one paw.
That was on the way home. On our way out, we happened to connect with John, who lives in the third house, on his way to IU Music Department. We walked together for that mile, talking about what we want to do with Green Acres Village, the need to put a legal structure under it now, and to get a Board first to help decide which kind of structure. And, I asked, would you like to be on the Board? YES! The idea of being there from the beginning as we discuss how to integrate GAV into the existing legal system excited him. Okay!
First real Board meeting will be during the hour prior to next week’s GAV Community Meeting, here at the Overhill house. However, it turned out that right before last week’s CD, we actually had a Board meeting without knowing we were going to. This happened, because Payton reminded us again, then and there, that it would be a good idea to get a Board together before we decide on what kind of legal structure.
Duh! I hadn’t thought of that. Payton is a blessing.
So anyway, last Thursday, prior to the dinner hour, Payton and I were meeting with an IU student who might want to do an internship with us. Just then Mariella walked in. Does she want to be on the Board, I asked, knowing she had already expressed interest. “YES, and I want to be the boss!” Okay!
So we’re off. At this point, I think there are seven or eight folks who plan to meet for our first formal Board meeting Thursday, January 25th, at 5:30 p.m.
After our impromptu Board meeting, the three of us looked at each other, amazed. We had briefly and intensely entered a Saturn in Capricorn mode: serious, focused, getting things done!
Then, on to dinner, great and plentiful food —
— with intimate pockets of conversation.
And you know what? We hardly drank any alcohol, even though it was available. That is a first. Also, I would say, very Capricorn. As if the time for frivolity is past. As if we must dig down now, get real.
Meanwhile, life at the Overhill house stays lively and sometimes hilarious. Like when Dan, with Alex’s help, finally got around to his promised task of covering my north window with plastic for winter — in his red long johns!
And meanwhile, let me tell you, if Shadow and new pup Hank can start to get along, then no wonder North and South Korea have joined hands for the Olympics.
I was so excited to see this new development that I took two pictures, just to prove to others that somehow, this brief rapport between the resident “only dog” and the interloper had actually occurred.
I will end with an interesting story — at least to me!
Dan had made some tiny Bill Hicks buttons. When I saw them I knew I wanted one. Put it on my purse. Wondered if any strangers would notice. That was about a month ago. And three times now, somebody did! The last time was when I was in the post office during this cold spell, and had put my purse on the counter. The clerk, a nondescript, middle-aged, overweight woman piped up:
“Is that Bill Hicks?”
She said this with a decided gleam in her eye. The same gleam I get when I think of him, what he stood for, what some of us still stand for. (Hicks died in 1994.)
So there we were, inside the P.O., two women, strangers, one middle-aged and the other old, psychically communing. It was just a glance, just a long, intense mutual gaze of understanding. That’s all we needed. Thank you!
In case you don’t know him, and young Dan says few in his generation do, here’s the riff I love the best.
Oh and by the way, this week’s Community Dinner is tonight, at the first DeKist house, Rebecca in the lead, with stuffed peppers.
