Winter blues.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Nov 20, 2020 11:31 am

shhhhh

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:11 am

Punk rock is a good idea. When you are cold and listening to punk, you just feel more punk. I got a nice transparent vinyl edition of Germfree Adolescents from my dearest for my birthday that will get a lot of play in the coming weeks. We also just bought a beautiful old brick-shaped Discman to hook up to the speaker so I'm excited to buy cheap second hand punk CDs!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:26 pm

If you can find it, I highly recommend the album "The Electric Chairs," which later became "Wayne County and the Electric Chairs," and then "Jayne County and the Electric Chairs," when Jayne County came out as trans in 1980. An iconic figure, give her a google. A Stonewall veteran to boot!

This is my jam:

https://youtu.be/SS0y5bOxvf8

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:16 am

Wanted to share a few winter/2021 survival strategies that have been working for me:

- BATHS. We all know this. A nice long hot bath with nice smells and candles in the early evening. Before dinner! Take your bath, do some stretching, put on cozies, make some food.

- Making elaborate packages to mail to friends a propos of nothing. You know how much it brightens your day to get some mail! Spread that feeling around!

- Theme viewing. Don’t just pop on whatever’s on Netflix—dive into the oeuvre of one filmmaker, actor, etc. Make watching movies/TV a learning experience!

We probably all know these but...open channel! This winter sucks. What’s working for you?

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:23 am

- I'm learning Spanish on Duolingo, spending about an hour an evening on there. Much better than doom scrolling Twitter and helps take the edge off post-work anxiety

- Watching movies on Criterion collection

- Going for a walk or working out every day

- Skateboarding when it's dry on the weekends, which is a rarity in Oregon winter, but much needed

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:34 am

Got an amaryllis for the house that is just blasting flowers. It is a bulb my grandma and mom both always got at wintertime. Boy is it a gift. Recommended.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:38 am

I've got narcissus bulbs forcing and I huff them regularly, it's good smell therapy.

Ditto to the evening bath. Candles, bath salts (don't snort), maybe some weed or cbd. Then a dinner feeling all warm and floppy. I do it every other day and it's definitely the most relaxed I'm able to get.

I also started taking CBD drops at night and that knocks me right out. I think it relaxes my muscles too, which is important because I have a tension headache waiting in the wings 24-7 these days. It was kind of an investment up front, like 60-70$, but super worth it!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:09 am

@joni's mom bought us Martha Stewart-brand CBD gummies for Xmas—they come in a very fancy candy box with a special flavor-legend, like Valentine's chocolate. The flavors are hilarious. Quince! Rhubarb! Anyway we've been popping those and it definitely helps. Maybe the first CBD product I've consumed that didn't feel like total snake oil?

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:56 pm

Hanging out in the red light tube is nice

Sobriety

Reading long books

Skiing

Dogs make you go outside at least an hour daily

Much tub and candle

All variety of puzzles... we are a devoted NPR sunday puzzle house

Dreaming of moving "home" https://www.redfin.com/CA/Chico/12702-M ... ntent=link

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:08 pm

Martha!!!! I would love to try these, for fun. My go to is Wyld strawberry gummy and Fab CBD oil drops.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:12 pm

Wow @marijke that property is amazing!

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:34 pm

15 acres in butte creek canyon, so beautiful, but a big fire hazard. I guess you get insurance, clear around the house and have an exit plan.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:17 pm

@marijke wow, yeah, it's amazing. _uncomfortably_ close to Paradise though. we're thinking about selling our cabin because we think it's gonna burn down sometime in the next few years...

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:29 pm

Right. In a canyon (bad), near a creek (good), near a place that recently burned like crazy (near term good / long term bad?).

I've been feeling disconnected from Portland for years now, wondering what's next. I came close to buying my grandparents' house (where I lived as a kid) a few years ago, which is as bad a fire hazard as this one seems. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1024 ... 7942_zpid/ I miss Northern California.

Would be sad to see your cabin go, but I can understand the worry. Seems a lot of people are selling properties in anticipation of disasters.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:42 pm

I hear that! Northern California is just so damn beautiful. We thought about maybe moving to Nevada City for a bit, but the fire/power situation there also seems sort of untenable.

Honestly if we move anywhere at this point, it'll probably be Europe in a few years.

Top cities:
Copenhagen
Berlin
Ljubljana
Edinburgh

But open to any country that's not fascist.

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:55 pm

Yes. I've been wondering how I can trick David Austin Roses into hiring me as their controller so I can live in England and work surrounded by the world's most beautiful roses.

DREAMIN

What about Ljubljana? I'm curious! I loved what I've seen of Central Europe.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:54 pm

I also love to dream of moving to Europe!

I'm hungering in a pretty existential way for public life. Not even post-COVID life, just like...going for a walk and getting a sense that people care for their shared space and actively participate in a community/shared reality.

Copenhagen is wonderful. Anywhere in Scandinavia. I had a time in Malmö before COVID that I think about all the time now—gorgeous public docks and bathhouses, bike lanes everywhere, a public park that had a little hut full of games anyone could borrow. Real human being shit. I fantasize a lot, also, about having a simple life in Southern Europe, in one of the thousands of small old Medieval villages in the South of France (a glass of wine is like one euro there) or somewhere rural in Greece.

@marijke have you read Derek Jarman's gardening diaries? Modern Nature? Lots of romantic tales of old world flowers in an English cottage by the sea.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:57 am

Ljubljana is sooo nice. Small city (around 300k people), downtown is closed completely to cars, lots of bike lanes, nice river, huge parks, great art/music scene for the size, there's an autonomous zone with lots of venues and various squatted skateparks and art studios, pretty cheap, close to the mountains, people are really nice, part of the EU, easy to get a lot of other places in Europe. I have a good friend there who moved there with his family and he loves it (his parents emigrated from Yugoslavian Slovenia to Ohio in the 60s so he's sort of native to Slovenia and speaks the language).

Slovenia sort of feels like a mini Oregon to me. Forests, mountains, trees, a bit of ocean, with its main city having lots of cultural activities, and it's not super right wing. The current government is centre-right but they've tended towards center-left governments since independence in 1991 and Ljubljana especially is very left-wing.

@yourfriendclaire oh right, we saw you in Sweden! Yeah, Scandinavia is super good at public spaces. They actually build skatable objects in public places, whoulda thunk? Re: France, yeah, that sounds real nice. Rural France or Greece or Spain could be an ok place to ride out the end times in the middle of this century during the waning of our lives, depending on access to clean, potable water (something I think about a lot is the coming Water Wars).

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:30 am

For your daydreaming pleasure: It looks like a lot of smaller US cities are giving moving incentives to remote workers:
Topeka: https://choosetopeka.com/apply/
Northwest Arkansas (seems vague): https://findingnwa.com/incentive/
Savannah: https://seda.org/resources-and-data/inc ... incentive/
Tucson (!!!): https://www.startuptucson.com/remotetucson
the Shoals: https://remoteshoals.com/
Tulsa: https://tulsaremote.com/
Hawaii: https://www.moversandshakas.org/

and countries are offering long(ish) term visas for remote workers who can prove they have a salary:
Estonia: https://e-resident.gov.ee/nomadvisa/
Barbados: https://barbadoswelcomestamp.bb/apply/
Bermuda: https://www.gov.bm/articles/one-1-year- ... ate-policy
Georgia: https://agenda.ge/en/news/2020/2265
Czech Republic: https://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/consul ... _visa.html
Portugal: https://beportugal.com/register-as-a-fr ... -portugal/
Spain: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados ... VISA-.aspx

Sorry, I got sucked into a click-hole...

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 4:13 pm

In early pandemic times we binged a dozen or so episodes of the British television program TRAVEL MAN, in which actor Richard Ayoade (from the IT Crowd) takes weekend trips (i.e. "mini-breaks") to different slept-on European cities with a famous guest. He takes Eddie Izzard to Ljubljana and it is a) a very funny episode of television b) a delightful-seeming city! I would like to go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_Man

@molly there was some Greek deal I heard whisper of, like if you moved there with the intention of spending a certain amount of money (I think it was 20K Euros) on buying property you could get an extended visa/fast-tracked residency. Definitely fantasized about it as a fuck-all escape hatch plan. Our dear Greek friend Larry Gus is always complaining about how terrible Greece is, though...

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:38 am

Buying a 20k Greek country home sounds very worth it. You get a second home in Greece and and fast-tracked residency (which would let a certain @joni hang [though probably not work?] anywhere in the EU) and Greece gets your money, which it desperately needs. Sounds good!

That Estonian zub also looks pretty legit. You just need to show that you earn your keep and you can stay for up to a year. I assume that would also give jocko freedom to hang in France (et al).

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:36 am

Yes, of course we can always move to France. We’re married so he gets residency if he wants it!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:25 pm

Thanks for that cool list of countries that are offering resident visas!

I just looked into the Greece thing and you have to spend 250k Euro on property, so that probably won't be happening for a while.

I have a UK passport but honestly fuck the UK. It's getting FUCKED by Brexit right now. Would maybe do Scotland for a while if needed, though.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:36 pm

@clag Oh yeah, married zubs!

Yeah, the UK is disappointing. You could do a Derry? But GOD that sounds so wet. Anyway, Trump lost, right? America might get fun?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 3:11 pm

Oh, honey

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 3:13 pm

@alexshred oh damn I was off by a zero and some change! NEVER MIND

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:13 am

Update on the “should we all move to Southern Europe” front: a pretty town in Puglia is selling property for one Euro

https://apple.news/A1l2a5Ea8Rs-xriAn9jPdIg

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:48 pm

I just need to share my gripe!

It's 53F inside our house right now (it's 28 outside) until we replace the furnace :-0
I have a little space heater. Actually, I'm glad the furnace is finally out for good because it has gone out multiple times each winter; I'd say we've had about 10 days-2 weeks each year total that it's out. So much so that David and the repairman became friends!!!

Once it got so cold in my bedroom David's water froze!!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:42 am

I'm sorry, that is such a huge bummer. I hope there's warmth on the horizon.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 11:19 am

Wow, that's cold. Reminds me of Department O' Safety days before we could afford to turn on the heat. One time I went into the kitchen in the morning and there was a glass of water. The top of the water had frozen. I hope you can get the furnace replaced soon!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:02 am

That is a fair fair gripe. I remember waking up in the dark with water frozen on the inside of my bedroom window to get on my bike and ride through the snow to take a train to work at 7am. BOOOO. NEVER AGAIN. I hope you replace your furnace soon and your new one runs wild and free! Let's say it together: NO MORE FROZEN WATER!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:15 am

Heat's back! Our guy found the part. Thank you for wishing me warmth!!

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 3:50 pm

I think this is my bluest winter week so far. struggling with job, floundering with the "life" stuff, burnt out, snowed in…

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 4:03 pm

Tell us about the snowstorm, Information Petal! What's it like when it snows in New York?

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:08 pm

hmm…I have an ambivalent relationship with snow. I endured 4 winters in Chicago so am not completely unfamiliar, but it doesn't seem to enchant me like it does other people. the pandemic factor removes some of the fun of snow days especially since remote work/school continues and you can't go post up at nearby friends' houses to have elaborate dinner parties.

I didn't leave my house for about 72 hours, but here it is looking nice and powdery on the first evening from my window. we are now to the snow mountain and sludge phase, and now I'm hoping it will thaw some more so I can get to my car I have here temporarily. but there is certainly a special *energy* to blizzards—a flurry of activity as the storm approaches and then everything goes quiet.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:38 am

I've never lived anywhere it snows regularly. Portland gets a snowstorm every once in a while, not yearly, and ice storms here and there turn the roads into deathtraps, but the feeling of looking out the window and seeing something there that wasn't there the night before remains a basic magic to me. I can imagine it loses its charm real quick. Dumb q: is there a sonic effect to a snowbank like this? When it's really piled up, does the city sound muffled?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 11:04 am

I think there is a muffling of sound! Though it's also partially due to a reduction in sound in general- fewer cars and trucks- but the snow seems to absorb some.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 5:44 pm

Oh my god... it sounds SO GOOD.

The quality of being in a landscape with a large amount of fresh snow is physically incredible, like seeing the color of sunrise at a specific spot on the planet, or underwater. The soundscape is just completely transformed compared to non-snowcover, it's one of my favorite things about winter. That and I weirdly like the pain of breathing very cold air, it's like doing a post-sauna snow angel.

And there are many regional variations... around here the land is very flat and has lots of trees, so spaces are broken up into smallish, cozy pockets of soundwave absorption material. To behold a gang of geese, in the moonlight, from a meadow full of snow, ahh.... it's like being inside of a pristine diorama.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 6:11 pm

you're knockin' me out with this word picture, Bocko!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Feb 05, 2021 7:43 am

I'm ready for your winter words chapbook to drop

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:13 am

I wanna behold

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:14 am

*snap* *snap* *snap* *snap* *snap*