October 10, 2008

top ten things i’ll miss

This summer Christina and I went to see as many music shows as we could. By the end of the summer, the last show, we were exhausted and kind of ready for it all to be over. I had in my mind the whole time that this was the curtain call celebration. The final hoorah before necessity items became way too expensive and therefore limiting the amount of expendable income we had for things like concerts.

I knew about Peak Oil and I recently started my own construction business... which, due to the downturn in the housing market, has been struggling since it was created. I felt like the end was getting near and I wanted to have a really good summer to look back on. The final glory days. I had no idea the entire global economic system would come crashing down a few weeks after the final show. But it seems to be.

I’ve been making a list all summer of things (mostly luxury items) that I will really miss when it becomes too expensive to do, import and/or manufacture these things. We spent a year at a retreat center in California and our little house had no water heater for six months, we had an outhouse (but had toilet paper, thank god!), no central heating only a wood stove and our power came solely from solar. It was mostly a nice way to live, but man did I grow to appreciate certain things.

At any rate, whether you “believe”* in peak oil, or global climate change or the possible collapse of financial markets it’s good to think about the “what if’s” every now and then and do a little reflection on them. This is mine.

10. travel (beyond a very limited range)
9. movies
8. cheap clothing
7. central heating
6. toilet paper
5. shoes
4. recorded music
3. chocolate
2. coffee
1. instant hot water

* I use quotes on ‘believe’ because these are scientifically provable things. Oil is a non-renewable resource, to say it will last forever is completely asinine. Global climate change is agreed upon by every independent scientist and not up for debate as if it were a religion or a philosophy. Financial markets rise and fall constantly, failure is only a matter of degree and to say our economy can’t or won’t fail is also not looking at facts. It has before, it will is again.

posted @ 8:13 PM

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