ROOPHLOCH 2023[*]

siiky

2023/09/05

2023/09/05

en

I'm writing this in the morning of Sept. 5th, with pen and paper, on the top of a big boulder next to the house I'm staying at. On top of me is a small and sparse vine. I'd rather be writing this in the woords, but I've come unprepared for this weather. The boulder is wet, it was rainging not long ago, I'm in natural squatting position.

I'm on vacations in a remote-ish village (there are 3 neighboring houses still occupied; the rest is deserted and derelict) with my family. Yesterday, Sept. 4th, the power went out intermittently between 17h and 17h30, at which time it went out completely. I didn't notice it until around 19h, as I was watching a movie on my laptop.

Everything in this house is electric: oven, stove, microwave, water boiler, fridge. And it came meal-time but still no power. There is no firewood around but no good place to use it either. Nothing we could do except prepare some cold snacks to eat together with bread and crackers. The power came back just as we finished, at 20h45~20h50. There was lots of concern, and we were generlly lost. We've come to depend too much on infrastructure, technology, and electricity especially.

However, while there was still light (and power) I got a book on my ereader for my grandmother: O Mistério da Estrada de Sintra. She enjoys reading but of course, her sight is not what it used to be. We found comfortable settings for her eyes and she read for ~2h straight. I couldn't say why I never thought of having her try the ereader.

And as I'm finishing this log it's starting to rain again. I'll take a moment to enjoy the rain while it's light and go back inside.

[*] I wrote this outside w/ pen&paper but used my laptop (inside the house) to publish. Not sure it counts for ROOPHLOCH, but that is hardly the point anyway. Made almos no editting or fixing on the computer; transcribed as-is.