Hanging my laundry in to dry

By using the Tiki Hut as a make-shift laundry lounge, I save $1.75 and about three kilowatt hours of energy every time I hang my clothes and avoid using the dryer.

There’s this scene in Lady and the Tramp where the animation cam zooms skyward and you see all these high rise apartments graciously shaking hands via clothes lines. It’s the night where Tramp is out courting his Lady.

Much in the same vein, I’m courting my quarters in my quarters. Wait what? What I’m trying to say is that every time I hang my clothes in my bedroom to dry, instead of using the clothes dryer, I save $1.75 and about 3 kilowatt hours of energy. That’s a noodle hooving, lip-smacking, good feeling (yep, still on Lady and the Tramp, the pasta kissing scene).

So in the glory and spirit of Monday, September 19, the day where I hung in my clothes in to dry, I’m going to honor my friend Dan Killacky who left me with his own moment of Zen:  

“Well, 'donkey' is 'burro' in spanish. and a little donkey is a burrito. in burritos there are beans, which are known as the magical fruit. magic in the middle ages often involved alchemy. in alchemy you try to convert various materials to make gold. so see, you're Golden! a Golden Ass! (i had to bring back the donkey)"

Please send Dan (dkillack@gmail.com) an email if you appreciate his friskiness, and remember that being green can save money and the environment.

We don't need jobs, we need joy

Orange vested kayak lady exemplifies the spirit of adventure that Americans will rally behind in the 2017 coup d'etat. Wild spats of good measure, leisurely pursuits, and a robot economy will guide the new American way of life.

It’s a sad time to be an American. You can’t vote for Obama in the next election if you look at the financial advisers he has appointed, the laundry list of promises he has yet to fulfill, or his overall cowardice in addressing a domestic energy plan. You can’t vote for Perry or Romney because their austerity measures will erode our already diminished tax base, resulting from Dubya’s tax cuts. 

Our nation’s staring down a 100 percent debt to GDP ratio, and both the liberal and conservative camps want to cut waste…I say cut it all. Let’s shake up the whole melting pot! They’re having some serious fun over there in Libya. You know, if we didn’t have to worry about fluffing up our resumes for jobs we don’t actually want by supporting an economy that’s chomping through mother nature, we could all live life well.

The UK’s got a wind turbine project in the works that will provide energy to over 700,000 homes. Think of how many tiki huts in Hawaii, dude ranches in Texas, or split-levels in Seattle we could energize with renewable energy. We could take all of our soon to be double-dip-recession-jobless-folk and turn them into the avant-green: heroes that use their brawn to create a new carbon free economy. As a glory perk, they will earn a share of renewable energy they’ve created with their labor power.  

Anyway, Obama’s going to lose the upcoming election because he’s trying to create jobs. Everyone knows that leisurely pursuits are far more fun and interesting than work, especially in this day and age. Who wants to work, when robots could be manning all of the mundane levers of society? What kid wants, or what parent wants to send their kid to a crummy city public school, when they could stream a top-tier education off the internet for free? 

We don’t need jobs we need exciting vacations, pursuits that push us to the limits of our mental faculties and physical capabilities. We don’t need to hump part-time or deplorable jobs for decent statistical standing. We need good people to stand behind good values, and we need a whole load of fun. Life is too short to spend slaving away in jobs yielding marginal personal growth or conquest. As a fulltime AmeriCorps “volunteer,” fully charged by draining your tax dollars, I will be running for benevolent eco-fascist in the wildly exciting 2017 coup d’etat. 

At gunpoint my Green Berets will force you to build solar, wind, and geothermal installations. With weapons pressed to your backs we will make you build a nationwide fiber optic infrastructure. You will be forced to have internet in your home. You will have to take free classes. You will pay for your greenhouse gas emissions and I will sneer and laugh diabolically as you suffer. 

Okay, time to study for the GRE, because I’ll need a master’s degree to find part-time work. Unfortunately, the robots and green energy needed for my subsistence do not yet exist and I must work.

Until 2017!

Head over heels out West

In beautiful Spokane, Washington, the residential High Street, overlooks a chasm of sheer beauty. Ears pop during scenic drives through this landscape.

The star smattered skyscape still sings to my soul. Less than a week ago I looked into the abyss and found nothing staring back at me. They neither guided nor misled, proffered nor quieted, steadfast and brilliant the cosmos just were, and so were we. John, his bride Teresa, Ileana and I were just fixed elements of a grand composition. Yet, sentient, aware, and alive, with eyes swimming through the endless sea of stars, a manifold of possibility unraveled.

Out there, under Gaia’s vibrant visage I could be anyone. James Cook crossing the Western Pacific, John Muir mobilizing Teddy Roosevelt to start the National Park System, or happy as a clam Steve Bert, present explorer of the West, avid dreamer, and lucky companion of the beautiful Ileana Vink.

It takes a place like Thompson Pass, in the company of Ileana’s godparents where everything gets thrown into perspective. No, our world is not yet carbon neutral. We still have a long way to go get there. I still am consuming energy at a level higher than most Europeans, but things have been trending in the right direction.

Solar technology is improving, Germany is moving off nuclear power, and the UK is en route to having enough wind turbines to power 700,000 homes.[1] In other news, the internet is still propelling justice, Libyans are nearly free from Qaddafi, and the Milky Way still shines with all of its history and might outside of the urban churn.

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[1] World Changing: A User’s Guide for the 21^st Century