I hit a chronological milestone today.  Prompted a small attitudinal shift.  I might dye my hair, punk it up and make my teeth so white I can blind people.  It’s all the rage, it seems.  But first….

“I’ll take smartphones for $200, Ken!” 

……..learning is what it is all about.  Really.  For me, anyway.  Getting out to the forest and learning how to build and garden and fix things (and heal trauma) is a treat.  I enjoy it.  I hope to be adequate at some of those things some day.  I aspire only to mediocrity.  If I can increase our independence, our self-sufficiency some day, that would be HUGE.

Aim high!  I say.

So, then I come to the city and start grousing about it.  That is not cool.  The fact is, I should be rejoicing in the re-learning of the urban life experience.  Whoopee!  It is once again, a challenge.  I am striving for basic functionality and aspiring to madding mediocrity all over again.

So, I got a smartphone.

It’s a start.

Oh God!  Oh Science!  Whatever.  If I thought learning to sharpen, tune and wield a chainsaw was tough, you can imagine my trepidation at mastering a smart phone.  Seriously, Dude, they didn’t have smartphones when I went feral ten years ago.  I am definitely over my head.  E-impotence, here I come.  My antennae is flaccid.  I just don’t have the same desire for smartphones.  It’s an age thing.  But, I’ll give it a shot.

Hmmmm….I have a smart TV…..maybe it can teach my phone…? 

If you can master the damn thing, it is amazing.  I admit that freely.  Mind you, I don’t know anyone who can play the smartphone fluently.  Not by half.  Apparently, it is like learning a second language.  Like Klingon.  Static Klingon, to be more precise.  You might get the basics down pat but it is always a second language and you are always mostly unintelligible to the young and hip.

Actually, we are all but invisible to the young and hip.

Young people learn second languages faster than old people.  And they also talk in a new, hipper, faster version (2.0) of English now that I think about it.  Some kinda jargon-esque mix between English, computer-ese, techie but with a liberal sprinkling of gratuitous expletives everywhere.  All the time.  And all done seemingly naturally and absent any actual knowledge-of-anything whatsoever!  Quite fascinating.

Apparently they can sext! 

I have older friends with smartphones who say, “Oh, yeah, it’s great.  My grandkids can do wonders with the damn things.  I just use it as a telephone, myself.  Really, I don’t need one of these Gooseberries, but I do like the XYZ app.  Lets me compare prices of produce between the chain stores, ya know?  Best Broccoli prices are Save-On!”

That is not even a mediocre level of competence.  I have to do better than that.  Hopefully.

We’ll see.

…..any confusion generated by the author’s last blog entry.  The author DOES NOT now, nor will he ever (likely) seriously posit the BIG BANG theory as defined by Cheap B action flicks.  I apologize to every scientist whose feelings were hurt and swear allegiance to the Scientific Method.  So help me, GOD!

That last post generated a response in defense of science reminiscent of a debate between Muslims and Christians.  “We only agree to the point of Abraham.  After that, you are completely wrong and I may have to blow you up to convince you!” 

Yes, I know.  It is the big bang theory that is the only uniting force between those two points of view, too.  Ironic, isn’t it?

Still, the BIG (or multiple bangs and crashes in slo-mo) BANG theory was presented tongue in cheek.  (And, as you know by now: there is nothing wrong with that!). I don’t expect anyone to subscribe to it.  Neo (The Matrix) as the Messiah?  I don’t think so……

Just because the BB theory is employed by scientists (“In the beginning there was this really BIG BANG….see….and then…we all started out as elements in a primordial soup…oooh….it gets better…..and George Lucas has the movie rights…just wait…so exciting!”), and that that theory alone kinda proves scientists themselves have a huge belief system fuelled by faith in BIG BANGS does NOT mean that I am saying vaccines are bad.  Or toasters or whatever other modern appliances the sensitive scientists use to justify their work.  I like science.  I swear.  Some of my best friends are scientists.  Love ’em.  Honest.

I like cheap B flicks, too.  That so many cheap B flicks tell stories about science…..coincidence….?

Oh…I am only kidding.  Everyone knows that science is the answer to everything.  Well, eventually.  Some day.  If we don’t exterminate ourselves with it first, anyway.  Right?

C’mon…!?  What’s not to like about science?  Genetically Modified foods?  War?  Pollution?  Global warming with science as the cause, the observer and the possible cure? Science: all things to all people all the time.  Like TV.

Listen, I like science.  I really do.  MMMmmmmMmmmm good!  Love what they have done with food, eh?  Science has been good to us. Entertaining, anyway.

And religion?

Well, the churches seem to be failing us lately but it could be argued that GOD is NOT religion.  I have often said, “Religion is to God what Safeway is to food.”  Just a marketing arm.  Just a business.  The existence of God is not dependent on the existence of religion.

Just to be more clear: Blackberries grow in the woods whether or not some fruit distributor picks them.

One thing is for sure: people tend to have a sense of spirituality.  In spite of everything (maybe because of everything) people believe in a higher power or state of being at the very least.  They have been believing this way forever.  It is natural.  N-A-T-U-R-A-L.  There is a kind of a comfort in that long standing tendency alone.  Belief in God is natural even if it is false!

And I was just pointing out that that tendency seems to pop up with increasing frequency the older we get.

Of course, it is just pathetic ignorance and fear clinging to mystical beliefs in hopes of a fantasy after-life. Right?  Science tells us that, fer GOD’s sake.  Must be something wrong with us….continuing to believe in something that clearly doesn’t work.  Like most of science.  I mean, it is not like GOD’s track record is really any better than science now is it?  Or science’s track record all that great either.  I mean: if there is a GOD then HE invented science, right?

Maybe both points of view are wrong.

Could be….

Have I mentioned my BIG BANG theory?

….I am seeing a lot of shows on Zombies and Vampires these days so……………keep an open mind, eh?

Reality is the big question, isn’t it?  At least it was for the great philosophers from Plato to Aristotle and from Descartes to the New Agers.  Everybody wonders about what is real and what that means to the meaning of life.  I do.

The big question is really, ‘Is there a God (and all that comes with that) or can everything be explained by science? (would you like fries with that?)’

God is hard to grasp.  Science can be measured and seen.  But face it; scientific diets don’t work, diseases still do and most scientific conclusions get refuted at some point….so the track record on Science ain’t all that great!   But mostly I don’t trust science because I don’t trust us (we are so flawed in everything we do – especially  the science as it is practiced by our government).

I say this because Science is limited by our own very limited senses/abilities even when we augment those senses/abilities with scientific measurement devices.  Doesn’t matter how you cut it – there is way, way, way more out there than meets the scientific eye – or any eye, for that matter.

So, some of us are thinking: less science, more God.  It is not uncommon with people our age.  People getting old start to turn to their faith (if they have one) where they may have ignored it for the previous six or so decades.

Most of us, of course, aren’t getting ‘extreme’ or changing long-followed, non-religious paths by attending a church or synagogue but some are.  Most of us are just contemplating ‘believing’ again in some sort of comforting way. In something bigger.  The most common refrain: “I do not believe in some kind of church-defined God but I do kinda believe in something.  Something bigger than all of this but without all the trappings of the church, ya know?”

And I agree with that, myself.  But others have gone a bit further……….

“Well, we decided to join the synagogue.  And I must admit, it felt welcoming being there.”

“Oh, yeah.  Been a deacon in our local church now for a few years.  I love it.  Feels good.”

“Yeah, I am a Catholic.  Didn’t go for years but I do now.  I don’t know why……”

The only thing more common than church attendance amongst us geezers is ‘birding’, walking and gardening (as if walking is a different ‘thing’ than what we have all been doing all our life!  Requires walking shoes, don’t you know? Binoculars and books for the birders.  Mountain Equipment Co-op for all your aging needs).

I confess to a bit (very small) interest in gardening.  Mostly, I like making raised-bed planters for Sal to garden in but it is all related, isn’t it?

But there is no question – the BIG question is coming up and it will get answered.  Some of my friends are further along this questioning-path-with-the-answer-in-sight.  J is pushing 95.  Many more in their 90’s.  They are not alone, just in the lead.  A few diseases and conditions are pushing a few others to the front of even that queue.  Aging is inevitable till it stops and we can all see the finish line, even if some of us are still some distance off.

So, we go birding?

Does that make sense to you?

Not to me.

So we attend church?  I dunno….I can’t see that working out for me, either.  Gardening has a nice zen to it sometimes but, really………..?  Ushering out life with a garden trowel?        

I think my chosen way to acclimate to the inevitable is philosophy.  And I currently choose philosophy as it is being taught by cheap B movies.  Transcendence by blowing up stuff.  Car chases and then blowing up stuff.  Very metaphorical.  Dust to dust.  I call it the Big Bang Theory.

…from all walks of life. Difference is the only real common denominator.  They are all different from me, of course, but also incredibly different from each other.  Rednecks, liberals, young, old, Asian, Jewish, Catholic, Mexican, even (gasp) Torontonians!

I have decided to boycott Ottawa, however.

I really should be more discriminating……….. But my friends all get along.  They get along with me and Sal, anyway.  Mostly.  Mostly Sal, actually.

And I am not all that easy to get along with, anyway.  I am fine to talk to…basically…but not easy over any length of time.  Keep it short.  Under three hours.  We’ll be fine.  Scotch helps.  But, still…..let us keep it under three hours, four if there’s scotch. For both our sakes.

I think that is kinda natural, tho.  Ask Sal.  Her limits are way longer than mine but she does have limits.  In fact, if she had her druthers, I would just be a guest who left the building now and then.  Preferably frequently. Keep my visits short.  But she has adjusted.  She just tunes me out now. For all intents and purposes, I am a guest who she just keeps tripping over.  In other words: she copes.

I mention this because friends and family adjust to one another.  They take ’em as they are and then filter or ‘tune’ them in or out as required.  And then that is the way they deal with each other…..at some kind of ‘acceptance level’.

To some extent we do that with neighbours, too.  And co-workers. To some extent we know all those people.  And they know us.  In a limited kind of way.  Willingness to get a bit out there and meet people is an essential ingredient for this kind of social-ness. We gotta work at it a bit.   Be willing to engage with strangers.

But what the city has taught me is that there is increasingly less tolerance, less room, less openness to strangers.  Even customers!  Less willingness to work at it.  People are more and more wary of ‘others’ it seems.  They are not getting close to one another.  Not in the least.

Could just be me, I suppose…………? 

Of course, security cameras for sale in Costco by the bushel should have been a hint.  And bars on all the windows like Nicaragua kinda suggest that a rising level of suspicion and fear is a general condition rather than a specific or isolated one like it used to be.  I know that.  And people are busy….who has the time?

But my point is that the level of suspicion and fear in the city has risen markedly so in the decade we have been away.  Very much so.

It may be that the level of fear in me has dropped.  I mean, I am not afraid of bears and wolves (mostly ’cause they stay away from us) and there are not enough people where I hang out to worry about.  So, it could just be me.  Maybe I am simply less fearful than before.  Or maybe more brave?  I dunno.

But I think it is more than that.  People outside of the urban areas (as few as there are out my way) are generally much more open and accepting of strangers.  Rural folk do tend keep to themselves but there is rarely much hesitation in helping another if the need is there.  Rural people seem to be ready to help others and get to know them – strangers or neighbours – should the opportunity arise. I think so, anyway.

By comparison, many of the urban people I have been meeting lately have been ‘cautious’.  They seem suspicious.  Not quite scaredy-cat but way, way more ‘distant’. They are guarded. 

And so are their buildings!

Several people with whom I have struck up conversations were politely pleasant and commercially friendly but even at that, not before going through a ‘careful’ stage.  They would take maybe 15 minutes or so to ‘size me up’ before being more at ease, human, pleasant, unafraid.  And I was a customer!!  It was like watching people change personalities in the amount of time Jiffy Lube changes your oil.

Weird.

I dunno…….maybe I am wrong.  (There’s a first time for everything, I guess.  I could be wrong.)  But it seems to me that our new urban culture is living in a more afraid sate.  More afraid of everything, of course, thanks to the news and all…but it has gone deeper than that.  Deeper even than Airport Security-type caution (which is way over the top in my opinion).  People just seem more frightened of everything. In fact, the fear level is almost palpable.  I can almost see it in their eyes. Everyone seems to be living at MarSec One and edging towards MarSec 2.

“Well, I am not so much afraid, really.  But there is a lot of danger out there.  Everybody knows that.  I hardly ever leave my neighbourhood anymore, tho.  I stay here.  I have what I need.  There’s a Save-On ’round the corner. I get Netflix.  And traffic is horrendous.  But, fearful?  Not really.  Parking lots, of course.  And Sky Train.  Surrey, of course.  And downtown at night…..well, anywhere at night, really.  I guess.  But I have my cell and we have security cameras and Neighbourhood Watch and well, I never go out alone at night so we’re OK.  But we do need more police, that is for sure!”  

“Beam me back to the forest, Scotty!”   

I try to be a rational empiricist but, what with my existential angst, I have to confess to a leaning towards Hegelism, if not spiritualism.  If I can’t will it, maybe God can.  I like Sci-fi, too.  Mind you, what with the cost of living in the city and the complete pointlessness of it all, I am tempted to fatalism with Nitzche overtones.  A nihilist even.  Hard to say.

One thing is for sure: God may be dead but money is the new God!  Morals may not be dead but what was wrong is now considered right.  So, they are really just on the ‘flip’  side of truth now.  Kind of a B-side, anti-moralistic stance on reality, really.

Facts may still be reality (and we all know facts fade – see medical facts, diets, healthy living, etc) but everyone seems to lie about everything and then stand by that so how real is that?  Then they say, “Well, that was then.  This is now.”  See GW Bush, Rob Ford, et al.

Things are pretty fluid in the world today.  And, of course, there is nothing wrong with that!  I am just trying to adjust is all…..

Most philosophies try to make sense of life and, by extension, reality.  Empiricists are limited by their senses and their means of measurement but, so far, Science seems to be catching on and Spiritualism and Mysticism (metaphysical) are being shunted to the margins.

The jury is still out.

And, having said that, people are increasingly leading ‘virtual’ lives, politicians simply lie-in-your-face and a huge percentage of people are well on their way to developing a new philosophy called ‘Denialism’.  It is not spiritualism.  It is the claim that whatever seems to be true is not and the opposite is likely true – especially if you believe that.  For awhile anyway.  We have Republicans, for instance.  Rush Limbaugh.  Climate change deniers and wars declared due to the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction.  Trust me, Denialism is BIG these days.

I subscribe to Denialism.  Not willingly, of course.  I deny subscribing willingly.  But the truth is I am having a harder and harder time believing what I am seeing and experiencing.  I am tempted to deny.    “I can’t believe it!”  is my most frequently uttered refrain these past few weeks.  It’s like an anti-faith.  I now have to believe in the anti-faith of reality.  Or the faith of anti-reality.  I have to.  ‘Cause that’s the new reality.

That’s sick.  I know.  But I am becoming a denialist.  Like Rush and Beck and Ford and Harper. Sick!

But there is nothing wrong with that!

(see how it works?)

For instance: I went to Costco and it took 2 hours to get a prescription filled…!  That is hard to believe but they fooled me every 15 minutes by saying ‘it would be ready any minute now’.  And they did this for two hours!  Well, they did it to Sally ’cause Security had to escort me from the building.  (Problem is that I promised not to hurt anyone after my first confrontation and felt obliged to keep to that but, of course, Rob Ford would lash out, draw blood, toke up and then simply deny it so I have a lot to learn still about Denialism).

I also crossed the Port Mann bridge twice last week and, though annoyed by the tolls being extracted, took some solace in the fact that they were discount tolls (50%) til the new year.  They track you by photographing your license plate and then charging you 19% interest on unpaid tolls.  Plus a registration fee.

Hard to believe that one has to be registered to pay a toll on a bridge!

So, I called in to pay.  But the robo-thief wouldn’t recognize my Visa.  So, I couldn’t pay.  All together now with the common refrain: ‘I couldn’t believe it!’

They knew what car I drove, when I traveled and even when I traveled with a small utility trailer (they charge more for that) but they wouldn’t take my payment and were going to penalize me and put a smudge on my license.  All this because I had the temerity to cross a bridge!

Hard to believe folks, but I had learned my lesson from Ford and so I phoned directly and denied ever being in the lower mainland and said they must have me confused with someone else.  “But, sir, we have your car, your face and your phone number.  We also know when you crossed over and when you crossed back.  And we know where you live.  You can deny all you want but ICBC will still get you!”

“Oh, alright!  I was lying but that happens when I am drunk or smoking crack, eh?  Nothin’  wrong with that, right?  Go ahead.  Just charge me.  But charge me the discount rate ‘ cause it was before the new year.” 

“Oh, that does not apply to you, sir.  You would have had to register before February of last year for that discount.  We kinda lie about that.  Sorry, sir.” 

She was not really sorry.  But you knew that…

“So, is this call being recorded for training purposes?” 

The point:  I couldn’t deny them but they denied me!  So Denialism is just for the elite.  I shoulda known!  All religions started that way.

Tax-and-spend.  The NDP has worn that pathetically weak but somehow effectively insulting label forever – even tho they have rarely actually had the reins of power long enough to earn it.

The irony is: it is hard to be anything but tax-and-spend when you are a government – any government – they all tax and they all spend so, like, what is the point of insulting one party with that description?  It is like pointing at a pro-hockey player and yelling, “All you do is skate, pass and shoot!”

But even more of a misnomer is that the party of good economic management is the moniker given the provincial Liberal party and they are the worst of the tax-and-spenders.  They are the worst money-managers!  They spend way more than they tax!

We are $60 billion in debt because of them and what were previously our biggest cash cows (BC Hydro and BC Ferries) are now hemorrhaging in red ink.  The rest of the herd is bleeding profusely as well.  Every single project the Liberals have touched has failed, come in over budget, not realized the income projections or simply has not worked.  They have mis-spent billions and billions and yet people see them as the party for the economy.  How is that even possible?  How could we be that stupid?

It’s simple, really….we really are that stupid.  The reason they can sell us that line of BS is that we kinda think of business as they present it.  We believe all that free-enterprise (the popular, media version) crap!  We think that, “Hey, I just go out on a limb, work hard, take a chance and, voila! I either win or lose.  It is a crapshoot but my chances are as good as the next guy’s.”

No!  No, they are not!  If the next guy is SNC Lavalin or some other Liberal corporate crony, you are dead wrong!  You are playing against the house and you are playing with a stacked deck.  You haven’t a chance.  It is NOT a level playing field out there, folks.  You have to play by ever-changing rules in a confusing economic milieu with cheats, liars and bureaucrats stacking the deck against you, the small entrepreneur or the worker-bee.

They, on the other hand, play in the back rooms with fixes and bribes already taken and banked off-shore before the game begins.

BC Hydro was in the black until the Liberal business experts started fiddling with it.  Now Hydro bills are higher and going higher to pay for their mistakes.  Paid by you (they already took their share to off-shore accounts).  And BC Hydro is not an isolated example.  See BC Rail.  See the Convention Centre.  See mass transit.  See BC Ferries.  See lumber sales.  The list goes on and on.

And wait for the crime of the century with Enbridge, Kinder Morgan and LNG.

Small companies are failing in droves.  People can’t find employment at the same time the banks and the mining companies are lobbying to allow foreign workers in to ‘fill the worker shortage’.  A huge percentage of people were literally cheated out of their pensions and most people in Canada are hugely in debt!  There is something radically wrong with that scenario.

And don’t even think about the tragedy facing young people today.

Face it – the party of business (provincially, the Liberals and federally, the Conservatives) is the party of incompetence, corruption and crime.  You will have plenty of time for reading up on all this while you wait for months for your health care services, your kids wander off in an uneducated or inebriated daze or you wile away your free time stuck in traffic or in front of a screen.

Folks, it is time to give your head a shake: most of us have bought the Kool Aid and drunk it.  And we liked the sweetness.  But the drink is poison.  It is a lie.  It is waste water.  It is NOT right.  Our system is rotten and we can’t change it by thinking that, ‘with a bit of luck I, too, can get rich!’

You can’t.  It will never happen.  This is a system stacked against everyone but the in-crowd.  But, even worse, the common definition of rich is toxic and dysfunctional.  We are working harder to make ourselves sicker.

We have to look at ‘enterprise’ differently.   WE have to look at economics differently.  We need a new definition of ‘rich’.

And the easiest way to change the basic ‘construct’ is to ask yourself the real question: “So, what is being rich really like, anyway?  And why am I a believer in this new religion?  Do I get to eat more food, drive more cars, buy more junk or what?  Is being rich more fun?  Is that what I want? 

“Admittedly, I won’t have the day-to-day worries but will I be closer to my family?  My friends?  Will my health be better?  Will I have more time to enjoy nature or play?  Will I pursue my interests?  What exactly has getting rich done for say, Jimmy Pattison?  Is he living a better life than me?  Is he happier?”

I actually know the answer to that but it is not my place to speak for JP.    All I can say is that JP ain’t as happy as I am and I don’t have his wealth.  And I can honestly say that, if I did, I would give virtually all of it away.  It is worth nothing in my world (well, I can still spend modestly now and then on solar panels and two-by-sixes, I admit that).

Happiness and great wealth are NOT related.  Not even close.  We all need some income (and some meaningful work), a lot of friends and family, some basic security (not airport level) and lots of good health.  And we need a healthy place in which to live.  But we don’t need too much in the way of consumer goods.  In other words, we all have our priorities wrong.

No wonder our politicians are always wrong.

I am one of those people who cause trouble.  Not real trouble, of course (although that, too, has happened) but ‘step-on-toes’ kinda trouble.  Hurt feelings.  Insensitive remarks.  Opinions.  Values.  Judgements.  I am, what is euphemistically described as, situationally incorrect….most of the time.  Or, more succinctly: obnoxious.  I can’t help it.  I trust too much.

You see, I also like people and I crack good jokes for them and for me to enjoy.  I do.  Really.  So the people I am with laugh and then I relax and then I innocently trust them to interpret my further remarks in my favour.  You know…benefit of the doubt…kinda thing?  Of course I know that a leper joke may fall on a victim’s ears and NOT be funny (to them) but I trust that they will see the humour first and the revulsion and dread as just normal.  And not really personal.

OK, maybe I should have noticed the stubs……but………honestly, unknot the knickers, folks! 

That kind of mentally healthy, humour acceptance rarely happens these days and I find myself having to apologize to some goofball who has sent money to lepers in Madagascar just because I made jokes about finding fingers in my soup.  I mean, really?!  Should I have to apologize for a leprous finger in my soup?

And I express opinions.  I was in the West Vancouver Library today and they are going all free-enterprise on the citizenry and part of that is selling books that don’t get read.  Like a discount bin.  Of course, the two books on the discount bin that caught my attention were biographies of Stephen Harper ($3.00, hard cover) and Brian Mulroney ($4.00, hard cover).  I honestly believe the hard-to-pass BM tomb (and I mean that) book went for more because it was, naturally enough, more long-winded.  It was thicker, duller, more pompous and yet a still competitively horrible read.

“You guys will never sell these books, ya know…?  If I had a working fireplace and you paid me the posted price instead of me paying you, I would warm myself with burning them but, other than that, they have no value.  Seriously, librarian-dudettes, presto-logs are more marketable.  Who does your inventory?”

A volunteer in the back cracked up but the two ‘pinched’ librarians just looked at me like I was specimen-in-a-jar.

I dunno…….maybe I should just shut up.  Who wants to hear at an auto parts counter that they should NOT have a 20 minute wait and a ‘take-a-number’ system going on…complete with the well-timed and colourful sarcastic remarks….?  Well, Lordco Northshore doesn’t like to hear it, that’s for sure.  Pussies!

Could it be me?

Maybe.

Will I change?

I doubt it. 

Maybe I should just go back to the forest where I belong.

I think so.

I have learned that there is a new social condition out there – Failure to Launch (FTL).  It is a term referring to adult children who don’t leave home at the generally expected age of somewhere between 19 and 25.  Instead, many of those children are staying at home with their aging parents and, as a consequence, remaining somewhat less-than-mature and less-than-able in the world.  It is not good.

It is not good for the aging parents, of course, who need to get on with their lives but it is also not good for the ‘subsidized’ young adults who will be left unable to properly fend for themselves when the time comes – which it inevitably will.

And no, I am not talking about one or two young adults.  According to statistics, the number is closer to 30% of the baby-boomer’s children!  That is a helluva lot of young people caught up in some kind of weird generational dystopia.  A dystopic world consisting of basement bedrooms, video-games, under-employment and unreal expectations.  It is a world of loneliness, too.  One of three are not ‘in the game’ that their peers are playing.

This is a social epidemic of dysfunctionality.  And it is a tragedy of immense proportions.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is the recent phenomena of women working full-time.  The only major statistical change in the last few generations is women in the workforce in droves.  That means fewer mothers at home.  There is no greater incentive for a young person to leave home than a nagging, cloying mother treating emerging adults as children.

And, when a young man is feeling his testosterone, if the only female in his life is his mother or sister, there is a built-in primal check and balance that has him reject them for someone new.  Someone new requires getting out more.  So, he goes.  And so goes his sister.  But working women are not so omnipresent at home these days and watching TV in the rec room is made so much easier.

Of course, it is much more complicated than that, I am sure.  In the old days, fathers were not SNAGs (senitive new age guys) and were generally more belligerent than the modern Alan Aldas of today.  Which I think is a good thing.  But the law of unintended consequences plays out in the bull mooses of the family NOT butting heads as was so often the case in the past.  Personally, it was my father’s nasty disposition that prompted my leaving home at nineteen and had me planning my departure years earlier.  That is not the Disney or Father Knows Best force we have all come to value but still it was quite an effective launching mechanism.

More liberal sexual mores are also a factor.  Seems many kids are sexually active now in their early teens.  If you are living at home and your sex life is condoned by your parents, society and by your now-more-willing partner, then another reason-for-leaving home has been eliminated.

And, I guess, most families being somewhat better off financially has also made the need for another adult’s income or, at least for the launching of a mouth-than-can-work, somewhat reduced.  If the parents can easily afford to keep the adult child, then the need for that child to make his or her own way when they can is alleviated.  Wealth can undermine the next generation’s independence as history has shown time and time again.

Of course, some kids are just dysfunctional.  That, too, has been the case throughout history.  But that contingent has always been a small number.  Thirty percent is unprecedented.  We have and are continuing to do something very wrong on a very large scale.  There will be consequences.

There already are.  A few of my relatives are FTLs and they are not happy, motivated, citizens-in-the-making.  They are angry.  They are bitter.  And they are becoming increasingly more dispirited.  In fact, one young relative tore a strip off me one day for being part of the generation that ‘owns a house when I never will’ and ‘holds on to the job so long that I will never get one’.  That I retired at 55 saved me from a further tongue lashing but the attitude was manifest.  He is not a happy camper.

Spoiled rotten?  Dysfunctional?  Socially challenged?  Unfit?  Not really.  He had a degree but couldn’t get a job in his profession.  Claimed all the baby boomers were staying on too long (teaching).  But he was sociable, intelligent, and spoke and presented well.  He could have been hired – but just wasn’t.

Unfit?  Definitely getting there.  His attitude is not good.  And it is not getting better.  But he didn’t start that way.  Fifteen years of not being able to enter the workforce was showing.  He would not have been my first choice had he just interviewed with me, that is for sure.

Even though ‘launching’ does not require a house, the goal of having one someday is usually in the back of everyone’s mind.  When I was young and starting out, houses were outrageously expensive.  Seemed way out of reach virtually all of the time I was trying.  A reasonable but modest house cost as much as ten times my annual gross salary.  If I made $7000 a year, the house in my neighbourhood was $70,000.  Today, houses in that same neighbourhood are a million dollars or more.  To keep to that already almost-impossible earnings-to-house-price ratio a young person starting out has to earn $100,000 a year.  Even if some young person is part of the newbies group who gets a job, they don’t earn that much.  And, if you are un- or underemployed, owning a home is beyond contemplating.  So, it is harder to launch.  The kids are right.

Of course, a little help, a little tough love, a good attitude and a lucky break or two can change anyone’s life and I think that this generation needs to strive towards all of that.  But, when 30% are in that situation, they may need something more.  I have no idea what that might be but one thing is for sure – these kids have big challenges.  I think they are bigger than we had.

Hundreds of thousands of people were without power over the holidays.  It was pretty bad this year.  Ice storms, snow storms, freezing temperatures.  All across the continent it seemed.  Winter was slow in coming but when it came, it carried a punch.  And, as usual, we dodged all the bullets.  We were lucky.

Of course, most of the time it has nothing to do with luck.  We are off the grid and that means independent of the grid.  That means that our power is in our hands and not in the hands of a utility company.  To be fair, they do a remarkable job and the power they sell is cheaper than what we make for ourselves.  But the utilities have millions of people who depend on them and even a single blown transformer can affect a lot of people.  And an ice storm can cripple half the nation.

When the BIG trip up, a lot of littles take the loss.

We are simply not players in that game any more.  So, for the most part, it is NOT luck, it was simply a choice.  We chose NOT to play nicely together with the utilities and we seem to be better off for that decision.

But, for all that, I don’t see why more grid-people don’t take a few minor precautions for what seems like an inevitability of living on the grid?  It would take very little to make one’s suburban or even urban (highrise, townhouse, condo) home independent enough to get through a few days.  Few people, of course, are going to want to run generators in their apartment.  And I am not advocating that they do.  But a simple battery system (that remains charged from the grid until it goes down) will keep the lights and computers on.

That would be easy.  Simple.  And not expensive.

Going up a notch, Honda makes two models of small generator that would keep a home going (on the very basics) for days.  The Honda Eu1000 (for balcony use) and the Honda Eu2000 (for townhouses) would be sufficient for lights and computers, maybe the fridge, too.  A small home could likely keep functioning with the Eu3000 and a good-sized home with all the mod cons would stay on with the Eu6500 (you’d still have to be a smidge careful of use like not doing a wash with all the lights on).

I mention the Eu series of Honda because they are the models that have inverters built in and so the power they produce is ‘pure sine wave’ and good enough for directly running modern appliances and computers.  If you use a generator that is not an ‘inverter-equipped’ type then it would be advisable to run the power through a separate inverter and battery system to ‘cleanse’ the wave form.  Basically, an Eu6500 is cheaper in the long run given that the use would be infrequent.

I have the Eu2000.  Plus I have two other gensets that do not have the pure sine wave output because all their output is ‘cleansed’ by going to my battery banks and then, when I need more power for the house, that battery power goes through an inverter.  In that way, I can store power in the battery banks and not have to run the genset all that much.  In fact, I can store power from my wind turbine and solar panels, too.

But that is me.  That is off the grid.

On the grid types don’t need that.  All most of you need is a 5000 watt or larger generator, a plug-in-to-the-breaker box and ten gallons of fuel.  That should last you four or five days.  If you need ‘clean’ power for computers and fancy do-dahs (as most people would) then get the inverter series.  It is really quite simple.

Why write about that which everyone already knows?  Well, it seems that not everyone does know.  Hundreds of thousands of people are without power still and it has been over five days for many of them.  Don’t be one of those left without when the inevitable power outage hits your neck of the woods.  After all, how could you read this blog if you didn’t have power?

Thank God!  Finally!  I can advertise my services.  And I can do my work with an assistant to at least attend to the paperwork.  Mind you, I expect to still do most of the heavy lifting.  But I can now do most of my work from the comfort of my own home.  It is about time!

For years, I have been wanting to be a bona fide sex-trade worker.  Seriously.  And now there is nothing wrong with that!  But there was such a stigma before – imagine that!  As a consequence of that prejudice, I was much too embarrassed to really make a career of it.  Afraid to advertise, mostly.  I am sure you understand.  That has all changed with the Supreme Court rulings that makes it all alright.

I am now good to go.

Now my passion (in every sense of the word) can come out and speak it’s name.   No more closets.  I may even go for certification.  Why not?  As everyone knows, it is dicey and chancey work at the best of times.  Training might help (car window conversations have always been hard for me).  And I really should be licensed.  At the very least a permit or tag to wear around my neck.

Or maybe a red strobe?

Now I can also have people who live off the avails of my work (as if they haven’t already!).  The government’s position on that hasn’t changed.

And, of course, you need your people.  Well, at least one.  It really would have been nice to have had a customer over the past 45 years, too!  But I was really underground.  No advertising.   These have been very, very lean years cash-flow wise, I can tell ya!

Anyway, the government in their infinite wisdom has finally decided that paid-for-sex (as if there was any other kind) is now reputable enough to be licensed, housed, regulated, monitored and, of course, taxed.  They claim it is about safety for sex-trade workers but, in my 50 or so years in the business, clandestine as it was, I have never been afraid for my safety.

Performance?…….perhaps.  Ridicule?….I do have a complex about that.  And the ability to finish what I started?…well, maybe a few times…..but safety?  Hardly ever.

Well……in my late teens, there was this one girl who suggested through sobs and tears that it would be in my best interests to attend the nearest clinic for tests…that was a bit scary.

And I admit that not just a few of my offers of service were rudely if not overly aggressively turned down.  Like I said, it is dangerous work….even applying for  the position can be dangerous.

The good thing about my new career is that there is no skill involved.  No education.  No commitment.  One doesn’t have to even break a sweat (that costs extra).  The industry is literally an easy-entry (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) trade and one can fly by the seat of their pants for a decade or two for the most part.  Or even without the seat of their pants.  So to speak.

I may not have much to offer the marketplace at this late date but at least I have seniority.  I know which end is up.

Not everyone does, you know?

I used to say that I would not get out of bed for $500 but now I can tell the truth.  That is actually the price of getting me into bed!  Mind you, with all the new costs to figure in and my pension to consider…plus advertising, shelter costs, medical, taxes, security and permits, I may have to add a zero to that.  I will be charging $5000 an hour and yes, any part of an hour, even 15 minutes, counts as an hour!

Sally will be booking my appointments.