'Cause I'm bored

I'm teetering on the edge of pathetic again. I'm a bit of a crap magnet, as Lori put it. I've got a cold. After months of denial, my camera has to go back into the shop again. One of our chickens up and died. Didn't even leave a note or anything. And to top it off, I spent yesterday wearing an eye patch and watching TV (doctor's orders, if you can believe that) because my talented daughter managed to bruise my top eyelid and put a big scratch on the inside of my bottom eyelid. Don't ask me how, because I'm not really sure. Whatever it was, I never saw it coming. But I am sure it hurt like crazy. The eye itself is fine, and actually feels much better today. My wrist is doing pretty well, probably 85-90% usable.

So meanwhile, I'm taking on a couple of new writing projects, which makes no sense. But I'm nonsensical that way. I can only reveal one at this time, because the other one is, well, uncertain. Mysterious, eh?

First, a story...

Last Saturday I attended the Community Solution conference in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Well, mostly. I was only there for one day of the conference, but I got to hang out a bit with fellow Groovy Green contributors Aaron, Matt, Sharon, and Steve. Sharon was one of the featured speakers, and she introduced me to Larry, the somewhat unlikely star of the conference. Actually, just between you and me, Sharon and Larry were the two most interesting speakers there. Of course I didn't stick around for the Big Names, but Sharon and Larry were worth the trip.

Of course I was already feeling guilty on the way over, because burning up gasoline to go listen to people talk about Peak Oil creates a bit of cognitive dissonance, but I mean, hey, they're not gonna put this kind of conference much closer to me than Yellow Springs. Anyway, here I am cruising down some nondescript country road in the pre-dawn gloaming, listening to the sound of a few more gallons burning away forever, when I hit a deer.

It was a glancing blow, and did no damage to the car. The deer may or may not have teleported back to wherever it materialized from, because it was gone as fast as it appeared. But from that point on, soaked in orange juice, I was spooked by four more clusters of deer, a dog, a cat, and a raccoon. What was going on with the animals anyway? Even walking up to Antioch Hall through the suddenly crisp fall air, a squirrel leaped out from behind a tree and I got another surge of adrenalin. Coffee? None for me thanks.

So fresh off this motivating conference, and partially inspired by Larry's presentation, I've decided to start a Peak Oil related blog. (Any peakniks who might be reading are going, "Oh great, not another one.") I will be keeping the focus away from questions like "What is Peak Oil?", "When is the peak?" and "Have we peaked?" and and "What are the Saudi's up to now?" Nor am I going to make dire predictions or meditate on the gloomy prospects and possibilities. I'm done with that. If you want that stuff, it's out there aplenty. I'll just say that I'm fairly convinced we're already at peak, and leave it at that.

What I'm going to focus on instead, is individual actions, low-cost solutions, and low-tech mitigation. Peak oil or no, petroleum is setting new records almost daily, and it's only a matter of time before that $2.75 gas looks like a real bargain. There are a lot of things that we can do to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. As a bonus, the very same things almost always help with that whole climate change thing too.

You'll just have to wait to find out about the other writing project...

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