| The Heaterfort |
An excercise in
The Integration of Myth and Technology |
What is a heaterfort, you might have said to yourself as you arrived at my site. Okay, now, a heaterfort is when, as a kid, on a cold winters night (I'm of course talking mainly to those of you living in the temperate areas of the world) you sneak over to one of the furnace vents located in the living room (or another room)of your house with a couple of blankets, moved over some furniture around the vent and threw the blankets over them to capture the heat (and thus effectively block most of the heat from coming out of that vent to warm that particular room.) Your parents have, of course, warned you not to do this over and over again. But, you're a kid and its fun and exiting to challenge your parent's authority sometimes. They've also admonished you for playing with the thermostat (of which you need to use a pen to lower the temperature setting) so that the heat comes on to toast your heaterfort properly in a house that your frugal old man keeps at a stoic 65 degrees all winter long. But in the dead of night and winter, I might add, with the wind whipping around your house and the snow piling up on the window sil and most family members freezing their asses off this has never come close to stopping you. And so you brave the unknown, you sneak out of your frigid bedroom with a bic pen in your mouth and 10 pounds of blankets on your shoulders and you creep on your tippy toes into the living room hoping not to wake up your parents. You pride yourself that you've gotten this far as you fling the blankets over the chairs in front of the furnace vent and take up residency in the heaterfort. You might be here, you say to your self, just until I get warmed up but then again, you just might be in for the long haul as the thermostat kicks in, and the furnace in the basement comes alive and a blast of warmth that few have known except the fabled Pulpsavage Indians who lived in the frigid ice-bound regions of what is now Minnesota. Yes, they too understood what cold really was. They also knew what it took to prepare for it. They knew of the Heaterfort.
Well, suffice it to say that most of the reality around us has its basis in myth and legend. And so it shall be with this web site. A technological marvel with some spiritual depth and a little bit of fun.
If you've visited my site before you'll notice some changes and additions. I've modified the navigation interface on the home page. In addition to the photo library of my childhood (unless my brothers or sisters send me some of their photos this is what it'll be for now), I've also added an online art exhibit that right now features some work by my daughter as well as a literary corner that this month features a book review by Patricia Lamb, my mother, of a controversial tome of religious interest.
Let me be the first to welcome you to the Heaterfort. I hope you enjoy yourself here as much as I did creating this.
This site is created by Jim Kovic. Send any comments to
jkovic@snet.net.com