From November 17 -21, 2014, Thom Burden’s extraordinary team worked to install heat back into Golgonooza. It has been a full year since I lost the use of the last pellet boiler, the day before Thanksgiving, 2013, and I survived the winter using only the back up oil boiler which did not keep up through the very cold winter of 2013/14. I recorded temps of 44 degrees on the first floor most days and a few degrees higher on the upper floor.
Then in July of this summer I lost the use of the oil boiler too, when the heavy rain waters caused the beaver pond to breech its banks and since the culvert on Purcel Road was blocked, it came down across backyards and into my basement (among others). It was wet, and left standing water for a couple of days which is still drying out.
As the cold weather approached, the lack of heat was unexpected for me; heat was something I took for granted. After much work to find the right person to do the job, and to fit into their schedules, the day arrived and the process of restoring the life blood and heartbeat to the building began in earnest. Golgonooza, this “place of becoming,” this place of “transformation thru art,” gathered up one deep in-breath and began breathing again.
In the midst of it I stood on the steps witnessing the process, later writing “I am in awe of the transformation taking place in my building and stand at the threshold almost holding my breath with wonder and anticipation at what it means : a new path, a fresh start, by my own steam. I think of myself as the King of Golgonooza. I have to be a King, not a Queen of this new realm.”
