internet better than enlightenment, says bored artist

I'm still waiting for my laptop to return. Supposedly it reached the repair facility this morning and will perhaps even get onto the bench by the end of the day. In the meantime, I still have no music, movies, phone directory, etc. I'm borrowing a little time online at my Dad's office right now to check email and post this quick note.

The weather's nice though, so I've been out in the studio working on a big new kinetic sculpture and playing around with various other ideas that may or may not take. A few days ago I had a big bonfire and cleaned up all the remaining building debris from various amputated sections of the house and former studio building. Makes the yard look a lot better... Makes me want to get busy landscaping, making a sign, and throwing sculptures up around the place.

Living without the laptop has had some odd effects aside from the predictable irritability and intense media withdrawal. For instance, I've found myself waking up around dawn the last three days, which is a much more likely time for me to be going to sleep.

Over morning coffee, instead of checking the news, mail, etc, I watch the birds which have found a way into my attic and built a nest... I'd prefer they didn't move into the house like that, but I'm now afraid to patch the hole in case they've already had babies or eggs, so I guess we'll be roommates for the season. They're very noisy upstairs neighbors, and seem bent on expanding their territory... at least once a day I catch them trying to fly into the house proper through the closed sliding glass doors. One of these days the door will be open and they'll find Mojo, my cat, waiting for them. Well, nature's like that, I guess.

The bees are out and are likewise determined to fly into the house. One came in yesterday and got a long strand of spiderweb stuck on him when he brushed against the ceiling. It trailed behind him as he flew, like those banners they pull behind airplanes. I spent a small while playing air traffic controller and issuing directions to the bee about restricted airspace and how to find his way out the door, etc. ("turn left and go straight," which did him no good at all as it turns out bees can't fly in straight lines. except maybe when they're angry). He finally made it outside again, but later returned for a brief exploratory run. I could tell it was the same bee because he still had some of the spiderweb flying behind him. It was funny, but only if you hadn't had much else to laugh about for a few days.

I even got so antsy to be writing that I wrote a half-decent poem a couple mornings ago. I haven't written poetry in years, other than short, unfinished blues lyrics here and there. I can't imagine writing prose on paper anymore, but I can just, almost, make it work for poems. Barely.

the long and short of it is I've had a sort of quiet Zen week, which is actually the last thing I want to be doing, but it's the best way I have to navigate my withdrawal symptoms until I can get back to being online. It's almost as bad as quitting smoking...

That should probably scare me more than it does.