Tuesday, May 13, 2008

overdoses

I'm nearing my 900th post, and realizing that my ability to write anything lucid is decreasing steadily over time.

I've been allowing myself an excessive Masterpiece Theatre indulgence lately. Jane Eyre, and the new Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. The first two were remarkably good and the latter wasn't bad, just felt like a more drawn out version of the 1995 movie, as it was too similar to have much creative merit of its own.

As a result of this, I've been thinking more romantically about some angst I've been having. Based on some remarks by President Eyring at the regional conference I was able to attend while I was in Utah, I'm feeling pretty grim about the direction of our current economic crunch. My Father-in-Law, who's worked in and followed the petroleum industries for years has been predicting that Americans are going to be economically forced to make drastic changes to their lifestyle for a long time. Right now most of our lifestyles revolve around automobiles. That may not be feasible in the future.

I'm mostly okay with this. As long as the crunch doesn't get so bad that people stop wanting their teeth fixed we should manage okay, but I'm always contemplating in the back of my mind ways that I can become less dependent on other people and institutions for the things that I need.

I'm itching to garden, and generally to have dirt to call my own. And despite the fact that I despise the trendy term "green", I can totally see myself having a compost bin and maybe even having chickens some day. (And I'd love to have a milk cow, if I could delegate milking it to my kids). I sometimes think I could manage without electricity for long stretches of time, although not indefinitely (Like only use it for 2 hours in the evening). Then I realize I love having refrigeration and air conditioning and heating and I have to start over. I am not an entirely rational creature. But I am romantic. I've been longing for a simple old-fashioned white nightgown for years, and now that I've GOT A WORKING SEWING MACHINE AGAIN (wahoo! more electricity!) I think I'm going to make the time to make myself one.

5 comments:

wjh said...

Good luck with the idea of having the kids do the milking!

aLi said...

I am there with ya, Em. We use too much electricity at times, and I would also love a white old-fashioned nightgown! I think there's a little romanticism in all of us (more or less).
Thanks for enlightening me again!

Angela said...

I totally hear you. My neighbors have chickens and I envy them, other than the poop all over their backyard. But seriously, the self-sufficiency of having your own protein? Cool. I suppose their are worse careers than being a dentist in the current economy, how about a jeweler, a construction worker, or the owner of a day spa. All things that are going to go by the way-side long before teeth. Heaven help us and good luck to everyone!

P.S. You sound perfectly lucid to me. Once again your post has entertained me and made me think.

Leith said...

Hey there is a green solution to electricity - Solar power, (you know that big hot thing in the sky I've been craving for the last few months). They use solar paneling in alot of 3rd world countries and its a gem. So see, we can all still luxuriate in our air conditioning without the guilt. AND, we'll have electric cars in no time too I bet. And if that doesn't work the end of the world will come. See cheeriness all around.

Anonymous said...

900????!! WOW!! Congrats. And congrats on the working sewing machine. That deserves a happy dance.

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