GIVING UP THE ELECTRIC TEET
I haven’t exactly been having anxiety attacks over the coming move, but the stress level is definitely elevated. So I started to wonder why. After all, nothing I’m planning to do is exactly new or unknown. I lived without utilities in the Hippy Bread Van for almost six months. I’ve been using a bicycle as my primary transportation for decades. I’m used to biking in the snow and cold to get to work. The only thing I’m not experienced at is living off grid in the winter and being without a refrigerator. So why do I have days where I just want to curl up in a fetal position, renounce all doom and gloom thinking and rejoin the polite society of Pollyanna’s?
*
Now I think I’ve figured it out. I’ve been securely clamped to the electronic/information teet solid for the last year and a half. Every day was at a minimum of three hours plugged into the Internet. Most were four hours total. I’ve become more addicted to the Web than I ever was to TV. I don’t want to leave its sweet embrace. The radioactive glow delivering information overload to my grey matter has corrupted me. The forced parting will not be pleasant. In the few lucid moments I experience every day I actually start to think the best thing about this move will not be the financial freedom or the increased self sufficiency, but the cutting of the electric umbilical cord. No power for much TV at all, and no Internet connection. Even if I get Internet to the trailer once again I won’t have the juice to power the computer for too long. My addiction will be restricted instead of only controlled by my need to sleep and keep the wife marginally happy.
*
Nothing wrong with the Internet. It is wonderful. But as with all things, moderation is the key. I should have known that.
END
My site www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
People in many countries already live without electric power and continue with their daily lives. Take away their food (or water)and they get mean and desperate very fast. People will change quickly and not for the better when they find themselves hungry or thirsty.
Damnit man, get those solar panels up!
I hear you on being addicted to I'net. My wife asks me why I spend so much time on the computer - sometimes thinks I'm having some kind of affair, lol.
I tell I her I've always loved to read, and the internet is just one big a$$ book, only you get to pick exactly what you want to learn about. Its all at your fingertips - learning curve is exponential.
I could probably spend 4 hours every day on net and still not get enough.
Y'know James, your post today actually made some sense. The reason you want to renounce the gloom is quite simply it isn't a natural part of the human condition. Sure we all have the instinct to survive, but that doesn't mean it has to be shackled to the boogeyman 24/7. The people who get through this current mess are precisely the ones that are not going to endlessly dwell on the negative (or spend every waking moment surfing survivalist sites).
I see many survivalists say: "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best". Problem is that the utter delight they take in "reporting" bad news just turns their little mantra assbackwards.
So why not just rock the trailer and have a good time.
Boomer For The Future
P.S. To all you Boomer FTF haters, wannabes and frauds- you better watch it, I might just go H.A.A.R.P. on your ass!
http://windstreampower.com/
Hook up the computer to one of these and feed your addiction. And you'll still be off the grid.
Or build your own version for less money...
Steelheart
Poor BFTF... he can dish it out but he can't take it.
Get some solar panels Jim, wouldn't require much to power a computer.
amen,
intenet
wife=wild card
of course you can
When you come to die, will you wish you had spent more time on the internet?
Yo bro, re: yesterday's post and power. For periodic lighting should you need it, it's very hard to beat propane. Maine camps use it all the time, it's sweet. Chances are high you'll pipe propane in for a stove and/or fridge anyway. Why not wire gas lights?
The only downside is they can throw off some heat, but that's also an upside on long winter nights.
- RM
Jim, it will be very interesting to hear how your story will continue with reduced power and reduced access to the internet.
As for Boomer FTF, whether or not you rock is none of his business and has nothing to do with him. The boomer also makes a mistake when he thinks all survivalists are like the image he has of them in his own mind. I would guess that most of us are just everyday people. Some of us are nuts. However, most of us enjoy life. We enjoy life so much that we don't want to join the world in self destruction.
Post a Comment