paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- hunker down in bunker town We�re �gunna� hunker down in Bunker town. Two more days until my birthday. And I am beginning to feel like a birthday girl. As much as someone my age feels like a birthday girl. The phone rang twice, rather mysteriously, and once from a music shop I might add. No guessing allowed. But I hope I get some new songbooks in time for vacation. Saturday Quinn and I are loading up mother superior (the dumb old car) and heading off for Bunker. We are going to Bunker and taking a pup, a guitar, a laptop, art supplies, some groceries. We are going to Bunker and may never come back. It is quite possible in that we will be stolen or taken hostage. Just in case we don�t make it back, I want to go on record with the exact location and size� The population of Bunker is approximately 390. The approximate number of families is 180 (it scares me, that they would have a statistic like this�) The amount of land area in Bunker is 1.673 sq. kilometers. The amount of surface water is 0 sq kilometers. The distance from Bunker to Washington DC is 811 miles. The distance to the Missouri state capital is 94 miles. (as the crow flies) Bunker is positioned 37.45 degrees north of the equator and 91.21 degrees west of the prime meridian. But then, we are house-sitting/pet-sitting for two women friends who live quite comfortably in Bunker and are �out.� But, I still can�t help but wonder, when they took the family count, were our friends included? Why Bunker? It is, I hear, absolutely beautiful and very near a place where our friends have found a like-minded spiritual community� not any sort of scary brainwashing cult where they eat a lot of gruel and learn to hate the world and become dependent on some possibly psychotic pseudo savior� Tonight I took the pup on a late-evening walk. We trotted around the neighborhood and heard three different languages spoken. Way to go, neighborhood! We saw one flip-flop on the sidewalk. Perfectly positioned as though someone walked right out of it and kept going. Our neighborhood is going through some big changes. Large new developments are moving in on our best-kept secret. Seniors are feeling displaced and bitter over the community that is dissolving. And when I say community, I have to mention because a reader may not realize this, but our neighborhood has been racially diverse forever. Citizen Gerta (German neighborhood president from last night) has a group of seniors who have been friends for over 60 years (not of course Citizen Gerta who just got here in �62) and they are Latino, African American, Asian, and white. And one of them is the most negative person I have ever met. He just exudes negativity. But that is another point. Other things we like about our part of town� We can walk to our choice of two different movie theaters, 100 bars and restaurants (I checked this out once through one of those mapquest map searches), all the shopping a person could need, and even the emergency room. (I always say, my own little rendition of Sartre, � �Hell is other people� in their cars.� At least in this town.) To top it off, our block is 40% gay, which we like. And it is quite diverse in all other aspects of the word, except there are absolutely no traditional social units with mom, dad, 2.5 kids, dog, and picket fence. To us, that is fitting. CatLover down the street wants to catch all of the stray cats, have them fixed and then release them again. I am not religious and have not sorted out my feelings regarding �heaven.� But there has to a place for people like CatLover to go next where they will get a reward or at least a cosmic plaque for being so idealistic. Everyone in StateCity, where we live, adores NeatSide because that is where �old fashioned families� live. Big banners read �come home to NeatSide.� And they are proud that it is a national model of �new urbanism.� I think it is a national model of �how to fix old suburbs.� Or �how to huddle on the edge of the city and get credit for revitalization without actually getting involved.� But I am biased. People think Quinn and I should have bought in NeatSide or thereabouts. But we could not afford NeatSide, and I have this huge dislike for NeatSide. Instead, we got unique and tiny house which is so old and cool but has absolutely no water pressure upstairs and not enough electrical outlets. And when we have not had time to cut the grass, Really Nice Neighbor swipes over the patch in front of our front fence. When our car has been hit or broken, we have never been without assistance. You can�t get that just any neighborhood. It is something that happens when people are together and feel change breathing down their necks. The excitement, the chaos, the confusion�. Sometimes you want to navigate it as big group. With Citizen Gerta at the helm. I wish I could get Citizen Gerta on Diaryland. But she has trouble with the mouse on her computer and this is a big hazard. I wish they sold special customized computers for seniors. I have rambled far, far too long. About absolutely nothing. 10:48 p.m. - 2002-07-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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