Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Okay, so I'm back. I took to my bed in despair with the passing of Fat Buddy and haven't written on the blog since.

But things are good. The new "normal" is as follows:

There's someone in my life who will henceforth be known on the blog as "The South American". He's special--and completely urban. Can't chop wood (well, he can now), needs constant supervision around power tools and is really good with numbers. The South American and I have been keeping company since fall of 2009.

I'm spending a good bit of time, on and off at The South American's house in Knoxville and so, have access to connections faster than my 24K dialup. That means I can post here in under 2 hours. Really, posting from home became impossible, not to mention blog browsing which is damn near impossible. It takes 3 to 8 minutes to load a page there.

I have no goats at the moment.

Had a huge dust-up with the mouth breathers at Newport Utilities. They are forcing me to estimate my power bill and pay it before I know how much power I've used. As far as I know, I'm the only customer forced to do this. I never missed a single payment--yet they sent goons to my house to disconnect my power--after I'd paid them. This is how they treat the disabled and aged in Cocke County. It's clear they've gone completely insane and are not to be trusted. I've got a nice chunk of durian in my freezer and I'd like to send them a fruit basket just to say "muuu-ah"!

I need both knees replaced and have to lose 65 more pounds before this can happen. But I've been banned from my treadmill. I'm spending lots of time on a recumbent bike and loving it--but it's slow going with the steroids.

I've taken up leather braiding.

I'm drowning in medical debt.

I continue to write.

And I'm ready to move. I love my farm, it's still my heart--but The South American has shown me that life in the city is not so bad. Being near bookstores, gyms, libraries and intellectuals has its finer points. Plus, the winters have become unbearable up in Grassy. Two of them in a row where it snowed and snowed and snowed--not just the pretty, getting a taste of winter snow--but nasty slush producing icy mixes that were no fun at all and trapped me there. The road I live on is the last to melt, so it's always a scary driving experience.

I'm learning a foreign language. Eu fala só um pouco de português.

I ran into Jimmy and Pam not too long ago. They are doing great and now that the weather is warm, I want to treat The South American to a one of a kind experience. Snake church. In the meantime, we are talking about attending the U.U.


So that's what's going on, my possums. What's everyone doing these days?