Today is a sit around the house and let the kids do their school work, kind of day. I am eagerly awaiting word from the Embassy on an appointment date, but have not as yet heard from them. I did get an e-mail last night, however, billing me for the price of the repair to the flash tube on my Nikon SB-900. £108.00! That is a third of the price of the flash, new! I am amazed! But I have enough saved up, so I get to start keeping my allowance for more fun things now!
I am still messing about with WordPress, and working out blogs. I like to keep things topical because otherwise everything I have to post would end up all jumbled up on one blog. A certain amount of tidiness that way makes me a very happy person. The latest one to go into development is called Made By Hand. If I could thing of a better, more apropos name, I would use it. The point of it is to start putting in the ideas or actual projects I undertake to fulfil my ambition to make my green awareness all encompassing, rather than just something that I do at home in front of the recycle bins.
The story goes a little like this: I remember when I was a teen in high school and I was in a general science class where we covered the topics of pollution and land usage, the rain forests, and so on. At that age I never took in this kind of information with any kind of scepticism like I do now. The idea of how our population was growing and encroaching on nature really did not sit well with me, nor did the idea of waste piling up in nature’s pristine reserves. It seemed to me that we lived in a world with only a limited abundance of natural resources, and that one day we would either use them all up, or pollute their sources to the point that many of them would become unusable.
Even more than the idea of polluting or using the world beyond its capacity to supply our species, I thought of what the legacy of our age would be. Would archaeologists of the future find our landfills and our wasted cities and see them as impressive marvels that lead to the eventual downfall of our own species, or would our generations be remembered as ones who would accomplish great things that really did mean something in terms of the survival and progression of the species.
Taking on the legacy of the entire species is certainly too much for one person to handle, however, I did in time come to realize what is meant when it is said that we all make a difference. Even if my part is a small one, only one six-billionth of the world’s population, it is still something! And if I am in the right frame, then when the time comes, I could make the big difference. Meanwhile, even the little difference is that I will teach my children social responsibility for the environment.
The Oil Peak in the 2000’s came and hit hard, with prices of oil barrelling through the roof! Then came the economic crash of 2009. These drove home the same point again, about being responsible for our environment, but with a new twist on self reliance as the emphasis. When oil goes, so will all transportation, and much of the manufacturing that we are used to now. When it goes, the war machines will be reduced to the late 1800’s with technology improved. And with the Chinese gaining in prosperity, and the Indians gaining in prosperity, and cars being added to the roads of both countries, we can expect oil to decline after the actual peak much faster than it reached it. Without plastics, healthcare will eventually end up priced out of the market for many people. Food will be far less accessible than it has been in recent decades. Basic items will eventually be so pricy that much of the world will be forced into an austerity that resembles the early enlightenment era.
But not to be a fear monger, I decided that the worry is not one of touting this sort of thing like people did the Y2K Bug, or anything like that. Instead, mine would be an approach of preparing for the future by gaining the skills of the past, and teaching or otherwise preserving them for my children and their children. As a species we have survived for tens of thousands of years with far, far less than we have now. We can do the same again, though I do believe that the ones most prepared are the ones most likely to continue the longest. I also believe that if much of this self reliance is put to use now, then the end of oil can be prolonged, and that our technologies will compensate better for our reliance on it. Further, I believe that the more in harmony we live with nature, the better balance we achieve with our planet, and the longer our planet will provide for our needs. We are on a little blue raft in the vast darkness of space. This is all we have got! We live too far from any other solar systems to travel to them and set up shop. So the blog is about achieving that kind of harmony, without attempting any type of spiritual fulfilment or political stage. In due time, I would like my children to benefit from this little recipe book of life.
Apart from the new blog, we have been preparing the house for the big move. There is so much to do! We have divided tasks up between the family with the right to delegate as required. Each person has a variety of tasks to manage. Some are big, some are small. But everyone has their hands full!
More Recent Stuff & Thoghts
Other things I have been up to lately include getting out and walking around Worcester. I might be doing it still in October, but if our plans come to fruition, I won’t see this place at all on September 2! Or 2 September, depending on which side of the “Pond” you are looking at it from! The kids are getting eager, and ready for it. I am keeping my fingers crossed! I only say that because I am the one who has to act as sponsor for the family, but I am also the stay-at-home parent who is earning no income. That is the only spanner we can see getting into the works. It is annoying to not know if and when we can go. I think that if we had an answer on the aforementioned topic, that would alone be enough to remove all of the stress related to the move. Compared to not knowing, I think that dealing with airfare and shipping and all else would be very easy!
That paragraph could not be called one, could it?
As I said, we are trying to get out and get familiar with Worcester. If we do leave it this summer, I would like to have seen more of it than the living room at our place! Besides, the desert is in such contrast to England. Water will be scarce, and the lawn will actually have to be watered in order for it to survive! Over here, we have never had to put water on anything outside, apart from making sure the vegetable patch remained moist. But there is obviously so much more to it than precipitation! The history here is going to be something to miss greatly! I cannot in all honesty say I will miss many of the people, or the culture. It is cold and closed here, and that is nothing like the America I left behind almost 8 years ago. I have been here so long, and feel like I have so few friends. I know I am not the most outgoing person, and needy in this regard, but to know so few, and from such a distance? If no man is an Island, then the people on this island need to stop internalising their homeland so much! It is weird living with my neighbours so close to me, and to yet be so isolated!
I just don’t think I will miss the quaintness!
I did say there was a lot to do, and I am not finding the best way to put to words what else is going on here for me. So I am going to leave it (sort of) unfinished for now. This post could
be twice as long if I could find the way to put it all.