It took fifteen months and a change of crews instead of the 90 days originally promised by the first contractor, but my new garage was finally completed a couple of weeks ago.
It has 32 electrical outlets, plus a spare 220 that hasn't been wired with an outlet yet. There's a half-bath with a shower, and a studio space for paint and an easel. If I want to, I can work out there all day without having to go into the house.
It doesn't have air conditioning yet, but that can wait awhile.
What I'm reading
I've been reading The Zen Writings of Stonehouse, translated by Red Pine. Stonehouse was a Chinese Zen (Chan) monk who lived in the fourteenth century CE. He left the monastery and moved to a hut on the side of a mountain, leading a secluded life for the remainder of his years. He wrote numerous poems about his life as a recluse. They are similar to the writings of Cold Mountain, who lived seven hundred years before him. In fact, Stonehouse quotes Cold Mountain in one of his poems.
I go to bed most nights thinking I would be perfectly happy living in some one-room cabin in the woods and seeing almost no human beings anymore. I usually feel differently about it when I wake up the next morning – but not always.
I'm also reading Daoism and Chinese Culture by Livia Kohn.
