Always wanted to live in a shack in the woods.
Nearly made it when I moved to Brunswick Apartments.
This
"shack" is right on the edge of an complex of bungalows
just outside of Morgantown.
I moved in here August 2003 after the other place we
were renting was sold. Plan is for me to camp here till
I move to Portland (December).
It's right on the edge of town-
via a turn-off which, at midnight, seems the loneliest place on
earth. Here's how out-of-the-mainstream this place is- West Virginia
National Public Radio broadcasts from a little shack down the road.
After years of living
in American houses where dozens of folks can look right in and
share your nudity, this place is amazingly private. Its at
the end of sidewalk so no one walks past my place on the way
to anywhere else.
At night, I can throw
open the front door, perch on the front step,
and peer out into my own private
jungle. For a failed hippy like me- this is pretty cool.
Things jump in from the jungle to say hello- like
some BIG moths or this
this little frog.
Come autumn, its going to be a great
color show. Right now, its rich and fecund and, at night,
makes more noise than my stereo.
While outdoors is big,
inside is not. Its a one bedroom place whose last
owner was a smoker. So I've spent the weekend with all the
doors and windows wide open. And if I close the front door,
its kinda dark- all that brown panelling that Morgantown
seems obsessed with.
Bedroom. Note the "instant furnitute" that I rented from
some place in Pittsburgh. A big old truck showed up one day
and just
poured in a bunch of stuff. And, at the end of my reign here,
they'll make it all disappear again.
There's some nice pathways
near-by. I can be walking off in an Appalachian forest in a matter
of minutes. Course I have to ignore all the "NO TRESPASSING" signs
that seem to grow naturally in this redneck of the woods.
This wouldn't be West
Virginia is rusty ruins weren't scattered around the wilderness.
Here's a HUGE billboard near my place. The thing
is so wrong- its
angled so that no one from the highway
could ever see it. Must be a secret transmitter for the alien CIA
conspiracy.
More rusting ruins.
Here's the "beltyard" at the end of the apartments. Yes, its a yard
full of rolls and rolls of factory-strength belts. Kind of
beautiful in its own industrial way.