paradise living

PARADISE LIVING
I had a really good trip this weekend, so thanks for putting up with my hooky on Friday. I can't remember as relaxing a three days for quite some time. My last job I was working seven days a week to get overtime to pay for my high rent living ( lot rent was nearly three quarters of my take home pay, which helps explain my ability to live like a dirt wallowing barbarian now and like it ) and since I've lived in Elko I haven't had much time off, what with twelve hour days and weekends devoted to chores and writing. So, I got to see my dad and took some personal time off for myself. The first relaxing time in nearly three years. Visiting down near the state capital also reminded me what a good choice it was to move north. It took me an hour to drive fifteen miles at two o'clock in the afternoon Friday. I understand that you people living in real rat like people pile conditions scoff at my considering sixty thousand crowded, and a commute taking less than two hours a quick stroll in the park, but there it is. I'll take the metro of Elko with eighteen thousand any old day. Yes, it is still crowded, but you can't go much lower without seeing no available jobs. And by the by, the state capital daily newspaper is in such sorry shape ( even after buying out the free Penny Saver type paper to eliminate classified ad competition ) they cut back to five days a week publishing.
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A week and a half ago, the Druid Dude had an even better than normal article ( http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ) on the Rust Belting of the west coast. He was explaining his choice in moving from the Oregon coastal area back to a small Appalachian Mountain town. Forgive me if I don't hit it straight on, going from imperfect memory, but it boiled down to his view that the west coast was in big trouble due to the decline of port traffic. Without the decades long increase in imports continuing, the entire coast is going to repeat the northeast Rust Belt saga. Now, the Druid Dude and I disagree on the collapse. He holds out for a long descent ( the title of his most excellent and highly recommended book ) with a lower tech, decentralized agricultural future. I figure we are all going to very quickly descend into full blown anarchy, die of disease and warfare and end up with 1% of the current population, who will continuously battle each other over depleted farmland and the trash of the current Oil Age ( Post Oil Dark Ages or Peak Oil Dark Ages- PODA ). I don't necessarily think he is wrong. I acknowledge that I'm just a smidgen paranoid. Regardless, I respect his intellect and reasoning behind his decisions.
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Despite severe problems with living back East, it isn't a bad place to live under certain futures. A long slow collapse allows the overpopulation there to be kept under control ( no out of control mobs as long as the hyper-inflated dollar denominated welfare checks keep coming ), so there isn't the screaming hoards of zombie bikers so near and dear to the paranoid crowd. The area can rebound relatively easily from the lack of imports and oil, whereas the West was never a viable place to settle before the consumption of coal and oil ( for anything other than a nomadic, primitive lifestyle ). There is abundant rain, plentiful river transport and small scale power, and some of the old infrastructure can be salvaged. Out West, with a few exceptions here and there, without abundant oil for all aspects of life things will totally cease to function. I don't know how accurate it was, but I once read a figure on the native population of L.A. as relating to the naturally occurring water flow being in the mere tens of thousands. So, for the future that the Druid Dude envisions, his choice of location is as close to paradise as he can get within his budget.
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My choice of Elko was based solely on economics, but I've come to realise that it is a great location as far as a total collapse. Everyone screams and waves their arms in severe panic, bouncing into walls and already planning my funeral. They simply can't see a future without farming, whereas I see a realistic chance of survival through herding and a nomadic life. You can eat your corn gruel and die in a famine, I'm going to eat rancid goat BBQ and die in one of the never ending skirmishes with neighboring tribes. I might die earlier, but my stomach will be filled with yummy meat instead of mush. My location doesn't work for organic farming Druids, and his location is a death trap as far as I'm concerned. Neither one of us is wrong, we are choosing to survive our own types of disaster. So when I recommend junk land, of course it is under certain expectations. If you don't share those concerns, it doesn't mean you are wrong but simply that you don't agree with my crystal ball. Nothing wrong with that. So if I do look at you disapprovingly for your inaction, please understand that it is with my own expectations of the future in mind. I can't always add the disclaimers to my articles. "If all goes according to Jim's plan, then the following course of action is the best one". I assume you take my recommendations with that understanding.
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It is important to live in what you consider the best place, your paradise ( or a reasonable facsimile thereof for your budget ). Take the sense of urgency at face value, but the location with a grain of salt. You know what is best for you. I hope.
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