Had to go work a conference yesterday for the non-profit I work p/t for. I headed out down the road and when I went past a local farm I realized change was truly happening. Farmer Ralph is one of those guys that if he starts haying his field we KNOW it's going to rain that night(sad but true). Anyway- he has a small flock of chickens out front of the barn and he is always selling eggs for way less than anyone else around here. So I pass by his place and his big chunk of plywood that has read EGGS- $1.50 for a really long time now- had been spraypainted over with a big $2.00 on it ! So even Ralph is feeling it I guess.
Anway- I had to take the interstate for part of the trip and I was curious to see if anything was different. We never have lots of traffic here as compared to other areas- no such thing as stop-and-go highway traffic unless there's an accident, or a white-out in winter. The traffic was a bit lighter than usual I thought but there were still plenty of cars and a few trucks on the road. The interesting thing was I was trying to stay to 55 mph- saves a fair amount of gas that way- and everyone, I mean everyone, passed me by. All these huge SUV's zooming right along burning fuel. So either these people have lots of money to burn or they're using up the kid's college fund I guess. I wonder if the new form of conspicuous consumption will be the ability to drive a Ford Explorer at 70 mph?
The road to the highway btw was lined with lots of vehicles for sale- RV's, ATV's, snowmobiles, SUV's, pick-ups- no Prius's though! All these gas burning beasts lined up on people's lawns, in their driveways or in empty fields with " For Sale" signs on them. There was more of the same on the road when I got off the interstate. That was interesting though. This particular road used to be the main road to travel North-South in my state-it goes the whole distance and is a nice little road in places- I've taken it the whole stretch. Now it's mostly a tourist road- and all along the road are glassblowing and pottery studios, T-shirt places, antique stores, the works. What will become of all this if there aren't hordes of tourists driving around? In fact my state is heavily dependent on the tourist industry. If people can't get here, or get around even if they manage to take the train that makes one stop per day in my state, what will happen to all these businesses and the tax revenues they generate?
The conference was good though. I had been wondering if there would be fewer people there but so many came in from all over the country; they had already made their reservations a while ago and would have lost a big chunk of change had they cancelled at this late date. I talked to people there from around the country- they had so many stories to tell me- too many to include here. But it was great to hear what is happening in CA and FL, MA, RI, WI, NY, CT, and Canada as well. They all thought it was much calmer here where I am than their locale. That's probably true for now. I was sad though as I contemplated that this conference might be the last- could anyone afford to get here next year? So many of them expressed the desire to have one last fling by coming here- and so they were trying to carry on as usual..... except that it wasn't.
I did an interesting exercise though. I calculated out what owning and driving a car cost me this past year. I don't have car payments, but I did have large repair bills- and my car insurance is quite low by national standards I think. I only drove about 10,000 miles this past year- down from the 20,000 or so I usually do. Like I said, I've been seeing this coming for awhile now and trying to work on it-and decreasing my emissions too. I also get at least 40 mpg in most driving conditions without a heavy load on board. Anway, I figured out I spent about five grand this past year-for repairs, gas, insurance, registration and plowing. Yikes. That's a big chunk of change. I don't earn a great deal of money doing the sort of stuff I do- a good year(really good) is about $20,000- so 5 grand is about 1/4 of my pre-tax income in a flush year. I need to think about this some. What if I didn't drive at all? What would that be like? Could I earn a living at all up here? I'm so far from everything here- even though I can get to one town that's 7 miles away- the road down(and up) the mountain is so steep- it triggers an asthma attack if I try to walk up it. No way to bike up(or down) it- scary thought the going down it idea...... Not sure how this could play out. I guess I could try it- get in better shape, go biking a lot- get/build a bike trailer. But trying to get to Farmers' Market with everything on a bike trailer? Not likely. A horse would be great- but there is the feed issue. I don't have enough land that can be pastured or hayed for a horse's feed year-round. Most of it is too wet. There's land here but my neighbor is sitting on it trying to sell it as house lots. Maybe they won't sell, he'll need the cash and I can somehow come up with the money? I don'[t do debt so it will have to come down a fair bit from what he thinks he'll get now. Lot's to think about. Got to get back to work.
Tags: world with no oil
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