The City Mouse in the Country

** 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 ...

These last few days have convinced me that I need to get off my proverbial ass and find a work from home position, or failing that; one that only needs me in the office two or three days out of the week. My 2012 Kia Soul (stock photo) The reason is that recently I "threw a rod" in my car.   This is basically the worst type of engine failure possible.  My starter also died at roughly the same time, which means that they can't even turn over the car to try to determine the extent of the damage or what exactly failed.  A new starter won't be in for a week.   Now this type of engine disaster can be fixed but it's going to take anywhere between two to three weeks at minimum even if I can get the parts in a timely manner. Living out in the "boondocks" requires that my wife and I have two cars.  We work in two different parts of the county and two different schedules, so it is just a requirement. There is no public transportation, no car sharing services...

       Recently their has been talk in the news of why no one wishes to return to office.   Part of that is due to COVID of course, the gift that just keeps giving.   Part of that is family, as various people are rediscovering the joy of just being together.        Others, and I am including myself in this bunch...really see no reason to return to the office.  I see no reason to drive the roughly 30 minutes one way that is the average commute.   Considering that I am more or less able to do my job from home with close to the same proficiency.  I am also looking at this as an environmentalist and as a frugal SOB.           Working from home simply means no commute.   Currently my car sits idle five or more days at a time.   I do take it out here and there to run it, just to keep the oil and gas moving.  As I've recently learned, going meatless just...