Beyond The City Lights

This weekend I closed on a house.

She’s a beauty. Just the right size. Just the amount of rooms I need. She’s located in a kayak-lover’s part of the state. I’m walking distance to a bayou and a river.

But there are a few drawbacks I’m encountering. The last thing I want to do is complain in real life, so I’m just going to catharise (I did confirm that’s a real word) by writing them here.

1. Because my new house is in a rural area I have two addresses - physical address and a mailing address - and this has wrought havoc on me trying to get my utilities in order.

2. The drawback to all that water I mentioned is that the house is in a low lying area. I had my first flash-flood storm last night and the water came pouring down the road faster than the drains could remove it, and a little mini lake started to build up. Now, the rain slacked and gave the drains time to do their thing, but I was getting nervous there for a minute. Concerned about the next hurricane now.

3. I’m learning that this house is just ever so slightly damp. Not really damp, that’s too strong, but slightly more humid than it should be. Not enough that the fabrics feel damp, or that there is a film of moisture on any surfaces, but enough that my skin feels just the tiniest bit clammy. And I do not like it.

This is probably the exact amount of moisture that people who use humidifiers are aiming for. It’s probably excellent for my sinuses and houseplants. But I’m a humidity-nonexistent, artificial climate control kinda guy.

We’re in our rainy season right now though, and the air outside is like wading through a pond, so I’m hoping this problem is seasonal.

•But now back to the good stuff:

1. I have been living in urban cores for the last decade. During that time I never had more space for planting than what would fit in a pot on my balcony. Now I plan to actually build and grow a full kitchen garden in my south-facing back yard. I’ve also got room for a little courtyard and a fire pit. I’m looking so forward to transforming my little plot of earth.

2. I am buying a kayak. Because obviously. I cannot wait to get out on the bayou and explore all the little cypress groves and hidden inlets.

Corporate lingo is funny.

I reached out to a coworker today who, like myself, has been working fully remotely for years now, and needed to know if she was going to be working tomorrow.

Naturally I asked her, without thinking, if she was going to “be in the office.” And she replied that she would “be in.”

It’s been a very long time since either of us set foot in our old office. But the verbiage persists.

BONUS:

This employee and I got roped a few weeks back into an emergency video call with a large, important meeting of department heads at our institution. We were given no notice. Literally just an IM after the meeting had already begun that we needed to log in right that moment to offer input of a subject that was being discussed.

I found out on Thursday that the 2002 American film “The Ring” was based on a novel. I had already known that it was a remake of a Japanese film from 1998, but didn’t realize the Japanese film was, itself, an adaptation from a Japanese novel from 1991.

That same day, I discovered that the English version of that novel was on the shelf in my local library system. I found it.

It’s amazing. First of all, being able to actually read this story on paper and let my mind do the heavy lifting, is itself a delicious experience. Secondly, this book reads like a book from “the old days”. Which makes sense since it was originally published in ‘91.

They don’t write like this anymore. 90% of the material takes place inside the protagonist’s mind. In his stream of consciousness. [As opposed to constant action sequences and character dialogue, which is common today.] But at the same time it’s still a story with an actual linear plot, not just some academic thought exercise, and we’re just along for the ride.

Anyway, I’m about two thirds finished reading it at this point, and it’s been such a nostalgic experience - both from the story perspective, and the prose perspective.

And with it being a Japanese horror novel, it’s much more slow-burn and subtle than most Western novels. Again, your mind does the heavy lifting, it’s not just spelled out for you.

I’m currently reading a novel based on historical figures and events from the early 19th century.

The following struck me and made me laugh: for the avoidance of melancholia “champagne and opiates provide great assistance.”

I feel like I’m living in 1970. Currently watching the live NASA stream of the Artemis II mission as it approaches the Moon.

Watching the Moon drift closer and closer via the live cameras mounted directly on the Artemis II spacecraft.

AND THEY’RE MAKING PROJECT HAIL MARY JOKES!

“Amaze amaze amaze.”

I was prepared for people in our 30s to be unwilling or unable to make plans on account of children.

I was absolutely not prepared for people in our 30s to be unwilling or unable to make plans on account of dogs.

A testament to the state of my country right now.

Alternatively: The way La Poste hates to see me coming.

I send post cards when I travel. It’s a thing.

However, in France the conversation always goes something like this:

I reveal my postcards and indicate that I’d like to send them please.

La Poste: Within France or ‘à l’étranger?’ (To anywhere else)

Me: À l’étranger.

La Poste: To which country? *Already gathering up the postage stamps.*

Me: USA.

La Poste: “Ooh la la.” *Slams the postage book shut and has to unlock the drawer that contains postage instructions for the difficult cases.*

07 February 2026

Okay, I’m going to try something.

I’m sitting here on a bench waiting for public transit, and my connection is running late. Which made something funny occur to me.

Literally every time I find myself in a place and time where something is supposed to be (waiting for a train, bus, friend at a restaurant, etc) and the thing/person is not there, my brain goes into film quote mode and shouts “WHO STOLE THE PENINSULA?!”

So people always ask “what’s one unexpected thing/cultural difference you witnessed while you were in XYZ country?”

Well one thing I’ve noticed about France is that no one is wearing sunglasses (Emmanuel Macron’s sexy aviators at Davos notwithstanding.)

Also in Clermont-Ferrand.

I took a trip into the Auvergne today with the intention of hiking up Puy de Dôme, a dormant volcano outside of Clermont-Ferrand.

Getting to Clermont was easy. Getting to PdD was trickier. I had to piecemeal public transit my way there.

By the time I got to PdD it was snowing. I thought nothing of it, other than remarking to myself that the weather service had said it was supposed to be clear. I’ll climb a mountain the snow. I’m down for that. Bus leaves.

Within minutes, it is absolutely dumping snow. The roadway is gone. The authorities call it. The train up the mountain is shut down. The trails are closed.

Okay so now what? I can’t go up. How do I get back? Many vehicles are stuck. The ones who make it out have chains to put on their tires.

I was with two others who had come on transit to do the day hike. We were standing in the blowing snow on the side of what used to be the road, with increasing drifts piling up around us, and park staff in the now locked-down building half a kilometer away telling us “they’ll come.”

A little over two freezing cold hours later, myself internally panicking that park staff would just forget about us and leave in their 4x4s, finally a tractor with a plow comes by. With the road briefly passable, the few remaining vehicles dig out and leave - and finally, us now fully alone - a regional transit vehicle makes it up the mountain to retrieve us. I could have kissed that driver.

When I asked the driver if he was going to be able to take us all the way into Clermont, he glanced at the clouds and replied “we’ll find out.”

Anyway, it was dodgy but we made it all the way down the mountain. By the time I was able to get back to the city center, the mountains were still lost in angry white clouds, but the city itself was just chilling, snowless, in the sunshine.

That was a bizarre feeling.

I really had been concerned that I would end up stranded at an isolated volcano for the whole weekend.

But anyway, I will conquer Puy de Dôme another day. Yes, I intend to try again. But it’ll have to be 50°F/10°C before I’m willing to risk it.

Also: all interactions in French. I’ve never felt more comfortable making myself understood. That was another bizarre part of my day. Maybe physical stress reduces mental stress.

So I’m in France for a few months.

One small pleasure about this trip is that [so far] not a single person has clocked my accent and switched to English. I thought at first that it was because I’m not living in Paris, but several other expats here have mentioned that it’s happened to them.

So I’m going to take that as a huge compliment that my accent is finally getting up to par (we won’t talk about grammar).

I’m sitting in the airport across from a group of friends who decided to exchange gifts immediately prior to boarding their flight.

It’s books.

They’re exchanging books they bought each other to read on the plane. And now they’re all jibbering excitedly about the books they received.

*insert teary-eyed smile emoji here*

So I think I found an AI music conspiracy?

I found a song that I really enjoyed, listened to it, added it on Apple Music, then started going through the lineup of EPs and singles, all recently released.

The vocals, after I got used to them, have a very pitch perfect, mechanical quality which starts to reveal itself after a few songs.

Moreover, this “artist” has no online presence. That’s anathema for someone trying to break into the industry. No IG, no photos on Google.

The only collaboration with another artist is with an artist that does have an IG presence, but that presence is limited to two photos, both of which are clearly and obviously AI-generated.

This feels to me like the whole environment is being crafted by one person, putting out these fake identities to sell a variety of music.

So the question is: does this matter? I have the ick in a strong way. It makes me not want to listen at all. However is there an ethical problem at issue? Is this permitted by streaming services? Am I just having an emotional reaction to something innocuous?

I don’t know the answer, and because I could be mistaken I also don’t want to put this …account… on blast.

This is by no means a problem unique to me - but god, the immeasurable weight of being the only person at the entire extended family gathering just staying quiet and waiting for it end when every other person starts going into full-on, malicious Red Hat Mode.