I took a bit of a break from blogging the last month or so while I concentrated on research and teaching. It’s the way it’s gotta be: blogging is fun but it doesn’t pay the bills.
Following another wacky semester, I flew back to my home state of NH last week only to land a few days after the worst ice storm in many years. The whole state was blacked out and today, one week later, many homes are still without power as the weight of the ice snapped electrical poles like twigs and blew out transformers across the region. I was at my Mom’s house last week and we didn’t get full electricity/telephone/cable/internet until Thursday. It was…rustic. I live in a pingfang with a bathroom across the courtyard, occasional hot water, limited television, spotty internet, and a couple of overmatched space heaters for warmth, but last week in NH we were busted back to Scrabble by candelight and heating with wood. In the last three days we’ve also had something like 20″ of snow which has hampered repair efforts.
Ah well, that’s what I get for leaving the hyper modernity of the Chinese capital for the backwoods of Kingston,