The City Mouse in the Country

What you see is the front end of my previous car.   I spoke about buying it just a little over three years ago in an article that I called  Buyer's Remorse .  At the time I lamented having to buy a car in short period of time, due to an engine blowing up, and not being happy overall with my choices. At the time I was hoping to move into a hybrid or even an electric car.   I was not happy with the results as I felt that I got pushed into buying a used Toyota for cash. The other reason I was not happy was because the research I was doing into hybrid and electric cars was not showing much promise at that time.  Electric cars simply did not have the infostructure needed to make buying one worth while.  Three years ago charging stations were few and far between and I am happy to report that several gas stations near me now include several electric car charging ports in addition to the traditional gas pumps.  I take that as a positive. My current j...

I consider myself a smart and well read man, so up until recently I was surprised that I had never heart the the the concept of "This Inevitable Ruin" before.  It's an idea or concept that downfall and destruction is unavoidable.   That chaos is an unchangeable outcome no matter what actions we take.   That what ever victory we obtain will have a high psychological and moral price, and may be short lived.    As my own family, friends, and readers face an unknown future on so many fronts I wonder if  such "Inevitable Ruin" awaits us?  If it awaits our country or even our world? I am not a nihilist  but the concept has been ringing in my ears lately as we seem to careen from one crisis - be it personal, economic, local, state wide, natural or global.   This article has started and stopped many times, yet I can't seem to get it right.  I even played around with an AI program to see if it would help focus my thoughts, it did n...

** The majority of this column was written nearly two years ago, however for a lot of reasons, has been updated and ready for publication now.** Recently a friend of mine and I were talking about some changes in our area.  We have had three solar farms built recently and there is talk about a wind farm. She brought up how wind turbines are responsible for killing birds.  That's a known fact that everyone can agree to, however exactly how many birds and what to do about the bird strikes is up for debate.   This conversation tells us a bit about the type of people we want to be.  We are going to have to make trade offs in the future and we need to determine what those tradeoffs will be.   Wind turbine's are constructed in a location that meets certain criteria to meet it's full effectiveness.   What happens if location X is also the breeding ground of a nearly extinct bird?  Can they still breed if the tower, or solar panel or geothermal ...