Town day.  Ain’t gonna happen.  Winds to 50.  Ferries not running.  Today, it turns out, is a day for hunkering down.

But that’s OK.  We’re cozy.  Enough food to last til the second coming.  ‘Course there is a limit on our scotch reserves.  But there is no sign of panic yet.

It’s a funny thing about timing.  Yesterday I wrote about our need to get more creative if we were to ensure community out here.  And today I got a response.

But first, I had better clarify – it is not like our current sense of community is eroding.  Not quickly, anyway.  In fact, we seem to be ‘holding our own’ and a clutch of cottagers and homesteaders ten miles east of us even seem to be growing a bit.  I wrote what I wrote from a macro perspective – small towns are getting smaller and big cities are getting bigger.

But we are basically keeping the status quo here.  Kinda.  The only real threat to that ‘quo’ is age. Because our quo is aging, time will eventually catch up and we will not be able to keep the status.

Anyway, I heard this morning of someone doing just that – reinforcing his community.  It is small.  It is largely insignificant.  It won’t attract people or keep any.  But it is positive.  It is constructive.  It is creative.  And it is this kind of thing that, if repeated and expanded on, can put the lipstick on the pig.  We will still be small, not a major draw to the multitudes but we’ll definitely be a bit sexier.

He built a phone booth.  A community phone booth to serve the dozen or so others that live near him.

“A phone booth?  You think a phone booth is sexy?!  Dave, you are losing it!”

“Well, maybe it comes up a bit shy on the sexy scale but compared to lipstick on a pig, it holds its own.  In my opinion, anyway.  And, what you don’t know is this: where they are, cell phone reception is poor.  Poor enough to inhibit calling and almost eliminate receiving.  People do as I was doing in that picture I posted two blogs back – holding an aerial and walking about in the rain (in their housecoat if the need requires it) to get or keep a signal.  It can be frustrating to say the least.

But, having a ‘held-high, perhaps mounted-high antennae and a ‘booster’ pack, seems to bring in a signal that can be used much more reliably.  We eventually did that at our place and, with the booster, almost have reliable phone service.  We still ‘drop calls’ and many calls go direct-to-the-message rather than ring but it is 500% better than standing in the rain in the nude (yes, I spared you that picture).

Boosting the Signal

So, this generous fellow went out and built a weather-proof phone booth, equipped it with a booster and such and attached a good antenna on top for everyone around him to use.

Simple, creative.  And definitely community supporting.  And that is what I am talking about, but on bigger and smaller scales.  And more often.

If we ‘construct’ and ‘create’ in ways suitable and appropriate to this lifestyle – which includes some modernity, they will come.

It’s a plan.