….under the house.

Imagine you built a house (level) on a 30 degree slope? That means that the front of the house is elevated on legs/piers, stilts/posts and the back of the dwelling is almost at ground level. That is what we have and the height difference is about 20 feet. The front deck is 20 feet off the ground. That also means that, as you go back up the slope (under the house), the floor of the house is slowly encroaching on your headroom as you go. By the half-way point, there is about eight feet of headroom but five more feet up and it is six feet and another foot up, I bump my head. From there on, everything is done bent over.

Our water system is also on the rock. The cisterns sit on the rock, the pipe line to the house sits on the rock and the plumbing pumps and such are built on a shelf under the house – just above the rock. It’s exposed. Of course, I did things over the years to keep it all from freezing and that has mostly worked. But not always. We’ve had more than a few pumps and ball valves for instance. There have been a few winters where the only thing to do was to drain the system, use pre-filled water totes and simply wait out the typical one, maybe two week freeze. That gets to be a pain as you get older.

Well, everything gets to be a pain as you get older but some things I can make better. Not all my plumbing can be fixed but house plumbing is something I still control. And, after some hesitation, putting all that of that system (the vulnerable stuff) in an enclosed heated space made the most sense.

Well, in theory it did. But OMG, working under the house on a slope and building a mouse-proof, warm room is a bit of a task. It was hard to make Sally do it.

I’m joking (kinda). I built the room but there were quite a few times when the space was tight and the yoga was lacking. Sal did a lot of the ‘tight’ work. She is also very fastidious when it comes to mouse-proofing so Sal was essential.

We are 3/4s done. The room is built. The machinery moved (always requiring fixes as you go). It is mostly mouse-proofed. I just have to add the heater. It does not need to be a fancy, modern, blah, blah, blah piece of machinery…any heat source will do and I only need it for say, two weeks.

But I got carried away. I bought a Chinese Webasto knock-off. They are diesel-fired heat exchangers that were and are popular with truckers, van-living nomads and, oddly, a lot of OTG’ers. Probably same reason. “I can afford two weeks of diesel heat to get through the worst part. My wood stove will serve the rest of the time.” They are cheap, simple, very efficient, safe and essentially portable. Win-win-kinda. I bought an 8Kw heater. I think that makes about 20,000 btus. It would heat 400 sft in freezing weather quite easily.

I have 48 square feet and it is only four feet high. Basically the space of two cords of wood.

If I had insulated the room, it would be way, way too much but I did not. But it is still too much. I have a small kerosene heater that will likely do the job. I am gonna have to test it all out before it is needed. I will probably go with the diesel and let the room get really warm….and maybe duct some of that extra heat to the house…I dunno…I am sure it is a science of some kind (Thermodynamics?) but I am more inclined to wing it, see how it works, make some changes and check it again. That’s my style.

Some time ago (3 or so months?) I wrote that Trump was done. Toast. Over. I opined that he might even go to jail (altho I suspected that it would only be house arrest). There was something in the air, some tone in the media, some dramatic DOJ actions together with some quiet conversions of a few GOP members that made that prediction seem correct.

And I am sticking with it………..but kinda holding my breath.

There was a recent poll in the Wall Street Journal, no less, reporting that Biden and Trump were tied. TIED!!!???? Yes, even the WSJ is saying the poll was flawed but that does not erase the fact that many preferred Trump to Biden. There shouldn’t be any!

That is not only insane and beyond belief, it is also scary and suggests that half the 340M people in the USA are as mad as meth heads (the other half are likely meth heads). The scary part, of course, is having Trump in the White House again but equally as frightening is the empowerment that will give the MAGA nut-bars. The US will descend into chaos. Well, even MORE chaos than it is already. Should that all happen, then getting out will mean leaving the continent and relocating to Antarctica. If you can find someplace to rent down there.

Trump is now calling Gen Mark Milley a traitor. Gen Milley kept Donald from doing something stupid as best he could and had a group of sane people watching the nuclear football and keeping other leaders properly informed. Milley was yet another ‘adult in the room’ keeping the Giant Orange baby in line. Now that the General has come out and said as much, Trump is calling for his execution. And some doofus GOP rep from some loony state echoed it. US government top-positioned elected and governing people in congress calling for the head of the Joint Chiefs.

And every GOP slimer from Mike Pence to Nikki Haley, from Kevin McCarthy to Ted Cruz remain silent. Not one (as of this writing) has condemned Paul Gosar (R-Ar) for threatening the General and one GOP hopeful, Noah Malegeri (R-Nev) has also called for Milley’s head.

Of course, the ever-optimistic simply write this kind of madness off to ‘crazy town’ (the latest new phrase) and, of course, they are called to expand crazy town’s limits with Loren Bobert vaping in a theatre, getting it on with her date-after-recent divorce in full public view and generally showing the world that she is an idiot. They have to make such allowances for Ron DeSantis and George Santos as well. Marjorie Taylor Green. Tommy Tuberville. Matt Gaetz. And on and on the list grows and on and on the Crazy-town city limits expand.

So, I am still pretty sure that Trump is done but, damn, Crazy-town city limits is expanding like a virus.

The main title of this blog suggests off-the-grid content and I try to still do some of that when it jumps out at me. You know, like a rescue-at-sea, wildlife sightings, major projects. What is interesting to me is that I have now incorporated regular OTG-ing so much into my day that I do not even notice it as different enough to write about anymore. For example: yesterday, I serviced three ‘work’ engines (all gensets) and went so far as to clean a carb, ‘stabilize’ the gas and, of course, change the oil in all three. No biggy. NOT news.

We also pulled the 14 foot chimney, cleaned it out (outside), reassembled it and changed the bricks inside the woodstove. Again, no biggy. NOT news. I also got a new, small welder and made up a welders table and rearranged all the ‘stuff’ in the little ‘new’ shed to accommodate all that.

Today, some friends come out for a visit and I pick them up in the boat and bring ’em over, feed ’em and, later on, load ’em up and take ’em back. On Monday, Sal goes over to the neighbouring island and picks up 8 sheets of ply and two sheets of cement board – because I have to enclose the plumbing into an under-the-house, warm-ish plumbing room to keep it from freezing in a cold winter (yes, should have been done a long time ago).

So, my point is that we are still living OTG and, compared to living urban, it is really very physical and different. There should be blog news. Especially when we are both in our 70’s. On the other hand, we’ve been doing this for twenty years now and it seems ‘normal’ to us. It no longer feels ‘normal’ to live in the city. It feels weird to go there. It feels ABNORMAL.

I won’t bore you with all the different urban rant-topics regarding traffic and such. I’ll just point out that there is a shift in one’s mental constructs, one’s subconscious thoughts and feelings, one’s perspective on well, just about everything that just comes with time spent being different than we used to be…..and that feeling is (ironically) ‘we are NOT ‘different’ anymore. We are normal HERE. We are mainstream, average OTG folks. THIS IS US NOW!

This minor epiphany came about because my daughter is still visiting and pursuing her self appointed mission to continue ‘learning about living out here’. Every day she asks, “So, what are we doing today?”

And I respond with, “Nothing much and then list a few chores that, in retrospect, sound like NASA projects or ‘Mountain man’ adventures. “We’ll adjust the solar panels to better capture the winter sun. We’ll get some of the boards up the hill. I’ll order a fill up (propane and gasoline) from the barge. Maybe do some dog-clipping. Maybe replace a couple of deck boards. We still have two logs on the beach. So maybe that…..”

I dunno…maybe this blog isn’t resonating with you….I dunno…it is just that we are now so different it feels like normal to us and it takes seeing it all through my daughter’s eyes to realize how much different we are compared to what we were.

OK. I’ll stop with the introspection and go back to politics soon…..

Please accept that we have never overly promoted OTG-ing to our family and friends as a TEOTWAWKI response, a SHTF emergency plan. But we have promoted the lifestyle. We have emphasized nature, health, physical work, skill-building, personal growth and the like. Of course, The Zombie Apocalypse gets thrown around and even discussed a bit but fear is not the OTG message, health and happiness is.

Anyway…my son and my daughter have recently visited. Again. Not a surprise – they come a few times every year. But it is not easy for them. One comes from another province, the other has a family a few hundred miles away. They both work full-time jobs altho my daughter works for herself and is a digital nomad-of-sorts. Still, time is tight for them – but they came again a week ago. “Hey, Dad! We’re coming up in a week or so. Both of us. Together!!”

My daughter’s new-found agenda, it seems, is to ‘learn’ how to live off-the-grid. “Like, what do you do, really? Other than chop wood? And, like, can I do it? Could you write up a manual?” My son’s even newer agenda is to suss out the the general area, the topography, the supplies, the tools. “Hey, dad, just how much water do you need to gather and how does that work? And what do you do when it all freezes up? Oh, yeah, just how much food do you keep on hand…you know, like, for emergencies?”

What they are really saying is: “When we inherit the empire, what needs doing and, if we have to come here in an emergency, what should we bring?”

They are now WOKE OTG-style. Something about our OTG-ness has clicked with them and, coincidentally, it seems to have occurred to them both at much the time. Seems they have been talking.

Now, do not get me wrong….my kids are hugely proud of what we have done and still do and they have been parent-proud since we started. (‘But it was a bit weird…..‘). They even kinda brag about their parents…not me so much as Sal but still, both of us. And it is not so much a pride-in-the-parent thing as it is a pride of lifestyle choice and a bit about the skills we have developed. Septuagenarian Sal continues to impress with her skills, stamina, strength and cooking. The simple fact that I am not yet doddering and can still move a few heavy things around is now a star on my page. “Hey, dad is not quite as stupid and misguided as we thought….maybe…”

But something clicked in the last year….something ‘woke them up’. Twasn’t us. Now they see OTG as a worthy goal, not an eccentricity. Now they are embracing it. They are anticipating it. They are – in a way – EXPECTING it! And they got there on their own.

“So, guys. I am pleased that you are both embracing this way of life and I am just as pleased that you are planning on your inheriting it all. That’s good. I am even more pleased that you are aware that you will need to expand your skill set and, eventually, will need to improve and expand the empire. It kinda looks like you are planning and getting into the ‘prepping mindset’. Is that right? Are you guys planning your summer cabin or are you beginning ‘OTG preppers’? And, if going OTG is true, what prompted this enlightenment? Are you seeing something more threatening than I am seeing? Do you know something I do not? Are you sensing something? What is prompting this renewed interest?”

The answer might surprise you in it’s nothingness……“Nothing, really, dad. I mean, the world is clearly going completely bonkers but there is no one thing that has spurred this. It’s more of a growing preference for this lifestyle over the city. I like ‘Gotham’ but I find myself liking being out here more. I hate the traffic and the rat race too. But no real specific influence, no real series of events, nothing really prompting it….maybe a bit of climate change threat, I guess, but climate will impact us all. I dunno…..we’re both around 40….maybe we are getting old?”

Getting old? I don’t think so. Getting smart, maybe.

….when you think you have heard it all. Seen it all. Done it all. Of course, you have NOT, not in anyway can one person experience it all, but you can FEEL as if you have. That feeling must be some kind of Exposure Fatigue. Been there. Done that. Material goods just keep being marketed in your face. The news cycle seems to be on a repeat loop, politicians seem to be clones of themselves, economics remains the same kinda giant mystery and human tragedies play out much the same every day…like rain in Prince Rupert. “Geez, didn’t I read about that just last week?”

My father, as he lay dying, said he felt that way. He then pulled his own Oxygen mask off his face and said, (his last words) “Enough is enough.” At my age now, I have had more than a few contemporaries say virtually the same thing by availing themselves of the MAID alternative. Sometimes enough is enough.

I am nowhere near having had enough myself, by the way, but I am very near to having had too much more of the same ol’ crap. And I am feeling that.

In literature, story-telling, movies, they say there are just seven basic plots and every story is just a variation on one of them. I am in no position to disagree with that but I have to point out that the news doesn’t feel like there are even 7 different story-lines being told. It feels like less. It is starting to feel like ‘same ol’, same ol’ every day. Even when it starts out as ‘new’….

Case in point (HUGELY) is Trump. The con man who never shuts up. The story that never ends. If there is an actual and ironic twist in the anti-legend of Trump it is that it is turning out that he really WAS good for business. The rise and fall of Donald Trump has earned pundits and lawyers, TV celebs and government officials gazillions of dollars and lifetimes of attention. Newspapers have risen from the dead. Thousands of careers and reputations have also risen and fallen. You-Tube has exploded. Capitalism turned that great Orange Pimple into an industry and the media (all forms) fed off him like flesh-eating disease for almost a decade now…..well, it will be more than a decade before the story winds down – if it ever does.

Truly, this is the most bloviated (empty and vacuous as it is) story ever told (on the dark side, anyway.)

There is an element to Trump’s story and, for that matter, all political-leaders story’s that is now viewed quite a bit differently for me. And that is: the utter futility of entrusting your life and well-being to the ‘chosen one’, their ‘party/gang/cartel’ or even the larger but totally parasitic ‘system’ they figure-head. In selfish fools and corruption we trust.

We are blessed in Canada more than most other people on earth but the reason (I am currently thinking) we are so lucky is that we have a lot of empty space in which to roam. A Canadian can ‘get lost’. We can check out and never have to check back in. Of course, practically speaking, that is a silly premise because we all need a society to support us in some ways but it FEELS like I can get out. It FEELS like I am partially out. It feels as if I can get further out NOW.

That feeling is not shared by most people on the planet.

To a large extent freedom is really just possessing a feeling, an attitude, a sense of options. And I feel as if I still have that. I do not feel trapped. I am not chained or incarcerated. I could, if I wanted to, even leave our house and land and just go. Age and experience has put a perspective, a context, an attitude to most material assets and things. I still kinda want (and need) a few assets and things but I am more and more freed from that every day. I do not shop much anymore. I do not dream of owning a widget anymore, nor even an AWD electric hybrid widget-mobile. All that stuff now feels like weight and burden that a free man, ready to break out, doesn’t need.

If you don’t need much, if you don’t feel an artificial allegiance to a dear leader or even a country, if you do not feel like umbilicals and cobwebs are all over you and, if you get intimations of your limited remaining time on this earth, you might be surprised to experience that as real freedom.

I am.

……….a full woodshed? A full larder? I dunno. I mean, I never thought I’d define happiness the way I do nowadays. Now, it’s all in the little things. At this stage in my life, I am happy and grateful for the most mundane, benign, laid-back vanilla lifestyle ever. Hell, I even like vanilla ice cream now (when living OTG any ice cream is extremely well received).

Here’s my typical day (sans the still-too-frequent tool-caused bloodletting): I get up at 7:00. Usually the dogs make a noise first but, if they do not, I have been sufficiently trained to the point that I wake and give them their breakfast at the right time. Then I shower and have a cuppa. Sal is right behind me and sometimes five or ten minutes ahead. Both of us are awake and clean and sipping coffee or tea by 7:30.

But then the frenetic pace slows right down. We each get on the ‘puter and do ‘puter stuff til 9:30. No energy needed or expended. In effect, we have only moved from the bed to the chair. But then, hoo boy! All hell breaks loose and we have breakfast (be still, my beating heart!). And we plan the day…………..

……..the day starts at noon.

The last ten or so days it has been mostly just getting in the firewood. Hunting, towing, sorting, cutting, hauling up the cliff, cutting into rounds, wheelbarrowing said rounds to the splitter and then splitting and stacking until the woodshed is filled. This year, we panicked a bit and gathered a few more logs than we need and so we have half-a-second year to drag and store on racks as well. But that is a good thing. We still have a couple more days of splitting and stacking and, of course, all the attendant prep and clean-up, chainsaw maintenance and such. But we are in fine shape…..heat-wise. Both of us ache and stoop a bit more than usual.

By four p.m, we are pretty much done for the day. I go pour wine. Sal always has something extra to do til 4:30 and so I maybe try trimming a patch of dog (one good square foot of Gus at a time), put away some tools or otherwise waste a half hour. At 4:30 we sit on the deck and drink wine. By 5:30, Sal is cooking dinner….or I am cooking dinner…or, more usually, we are cooking dinner together. By 6:30 the dishes are done and, once again, our hectic pace subsides. We can relax.

Of course, the day includes a myriad of other miscellaneous, short term diversions from the main chore but, generally speaking, we do one half-day BIG job and a dozen five minute to-do-list tasks, plus a phone call or whatever but that’s basically it. Off the grid living Dave and Sally style.

Please note the not-mentioned commute, the meetings NOT had, the appointments not made, the projects-for-others not due. No shopping, no Starbucks, no gym. Please note the predominantly selfish, private, independent nature of it all.

If it weren’t for the demands of the damn dogs, eh?

To have or have not? It seems (from studies) that there are 38 separate factors that are involved in creating the stage for a Civil War. And it takes no kind of genius to accurately guess at many of them. Inequality, corruption, persecution, poverty, ideology, etc. But, according to B.F. Walters, a three decades-long expert in Civil Wars, there are only two main REAL factors to worry about in the short term: celebrity/identity/ethnic/racist politics (and) in a weak or eroded democracy termed an ‘anocracy’. (Somewhere between an autocracy and a democracy – in most instances, a corrupt democracy).

In other words: democracy has a better chance when voting is ideologically driven rather than when focused on a cult-personality or a fear/hatred. Furthermore, voting needs to be universal, trusted and influential. The people need to see that their vote counts.

The US currently qualifies so highly in those two main areas and many of the 36 lesser ones that their democracy has been downgraded by Democracy Watch three times since 2016. The USA is, by expert opinion, on the verge.

Apparently, a likely civil war scenario can be ‘walked back from the edge’. Ms Walter states that, in the short term, firstly, media has to be regulated. NOT censored. The difference she cites is that anyone should be able to say anything they want in a real, free-speech democracy but that the media (or shadow media actors) should NOT be employing algorithms to artificially amp up one message or another. Russia and China used altering social media algorithms to assist Trump get elected. Our social media is acting or being used as foreign propaganda.

Secondly, business has to become more ‘people focused’ and be less profit focused. Business is currently the missing ally with government in the equation for a stable and healthy democracy.

Thirdly, we as a population/society have to accept inevitable sociological changes and the single-most resistant segment of the population to those changes are older white men and women. Where older white men and women used to enjoy higher status and some kinds of privilege, today they do not. Furthermore, whites as a group, will be in the minority sometime soon. Walters believes it will be sooner rather than later because of climate change migration. She also states that a lot of (vague) anger drives militias, addictions, homelessness, mass shootings and the increasingly marginalized and white men are the ones who have fallen the fastest and the farthest. See the January 6th crowd.

For the record: B. F. Walters is a white woman.

I tend to agree with her….mostly. I am not in the least aggravated by skin colour, religion or most cultures. And I grew up so poor that privilege and status are not something I aspire to (I am already doing great for trailer trash). But, like every white male, I have seen ‘white-male-ism’ somewhat maligned and increasingly blamed for just about everything. That’s ridiculous, of course, but it does indicate a lower social status than before. Nobody likes change if it is for the (self perceived) worse. So, I can almost understand the hill-billy Bubba coal miner getting angry and shootin’ up the local Walmart. I, too, am a grouchy old man, after all. I just don’t blame anyone is all. Don’t wanna shoot anyone. If foreigners come, that is OK by me.

Mostly. I really do not want the Bloods and Crips to move in next door. Or the Hell’s Angels. I do think (probably erroneously) that the Russian culture is more than a bit scary at times. And I confess to keeping a watchful eye when visiting a 3rd world country with a lot of unemployed, impoverished, rough-looking young men carrying guns. Like, Haiti might put me on edge, for instance. I ain’t Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm. Still, I can honestly say that I can be and will be friends with anyone who is pleasant and trying their best to be a good Canuck. We could use a few more good guys around.

But I digress….the point is that US democracy is under some real threat. The point is that change is coming. The point is the two main ingredients for a US civil war are present and B.F. Walters is raising the alarm.

How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them is a book by Barbara F. Walter, published in 2022

This is not an opinion on any specific area of lies (such as politics, economics, news, etc) but, rather, the general trend to lying in every conceivable nook and cranny of modern life. I think lying is now at epidemic levels. Lying is a disease.

Trump, of course, is the most obvious manifestation of this social phenomena but he was not avant garde in that respect. He has been lying all his life in a culture and society also lying all the time. He was just one of the most prolific and so-called successful liars in the past twenty or so years and managed to play the Lying Game into the White House.

Good ol’ Justin just lied to us right from the start. Same kinda thing….

As a personal aside, and it is likely just coincidental, but the commonizing of the use of profanity in all aspects of social discourse seems to run parallel with the trend to lying (hint: ignorance). It is all so incredibly dysfunctional and definitely reflecting something in our species, our culture, our society.

Leaving aside the now ubiquitous profanity, what might lying-in-general say about us? I think it says ignorance and immorality the loudest. A lie can’t go very far if the listener knows the truth, knows the facts, knows enough to be a critical thinker and knows how to find answers. ‘Mericans are famously ignorant and, it seems, getting even more so every day. Trump apparently loves ignorant people. “I love the poorly educated.” (Trump. February, 2016). Ignorance is on the ascendancy.

And morality is also something now made unclear. We no longer know what is the ‘right thing to do’ half the time. Political correctness, changing social habits and strictures, massive amounts of opinions on social media and alternative facts have blurred our values. Being Green and a good person ain’t easy. (Kermit)

But it is not just the con artist and the crook at play here. It is, of course, our governments and our institutions. We have come to accept institutional lies at every level from Freedom of Information policies to ‘so-called’ confidentiality and liability concerns that basically just keep ‘them’ from telling the truth, sharing the information, stating the facts. And everyone knows the news of the world doesn’t easily fit into a Media company’s time slot and business plan. In almost every walk of life, information is withheld, changed, spun and manipulated. ‘Telling it like it is’ has left the building.

That less direct way of dissembling is lying-by-omission. Why would we allow that? If people won’t step up and say the truth, it is likely because of fear. So, I am adding fear to the equation of ignorance and immorality.

And this is where it gets interesting: What becomes of a person who is ignorant, fearful and lacking in morals? Answer: they feel empty. They are lonely and directionless. They look for leadership….

It has been said that Nature abhors a vacuum and I think that an empty person naturally wants filling. It is only human to want to fill the void one feels even if the void gets filled with junk. And so we get addictions, celebrity worship, racism, bigotry, hate, division and the like. We get Trump. Social media is a drug dealer. Those ugly things flow readily. They fill voids. They make someone money. A dumb Bubba can watch football and Kim Kardashian’s butt, listen to Trump and Alex Jones, eat fast food and shoot his guns and think he is living a normal life because his day is filled.

But he is not. And when a large portion of the population still feels empty, they are easily led by those who count on them being uneducated and lonely with no direction home…(Dylan).

We have all cracked jokes about the Zombie Apocalypse (too silly to be real) but maybe an ignorant, immoral, fearful, lonely and empty person is some kind of zombie. Jus’ sayin’…

Seems the world is going even more urban. I just read that 55% of the entire world’s population now lives in large cities. By 2050, they project it will be 65%.

Chongquin, China (the sprawl formerly known as ChunKing) is home to something like 38M people or the same number of people as the second largest country on earth – Canada. Greater Tokyo is the largest urban centre at something like 40M. And I am not so sure from the reports that small towns are even counted. Maybe, if they did count them, the percentage of ‘urbanized’ people would be even higher.

The point? Well, maybe there is no point but what does urbanize mean to an individual?

Basically, people first went urban to work and swim in the gene pool but, of course, once there, people tend to stay. Repeat that for a few dozen generations and voila! Cities!!

But back to what urbanization means today. Firstly, it is now synonymous with dependent. Highrise folks do not grow, gather or hunt their own food. Nor do they harvest their own water, deal with their own waste or even fix their own homes. Being urban DOES NOT MEAN weak and useless but it seems to be a place that the weak and useless can thrive and the strong and skilled just go to the gym.

Urban also means something close to defenseless. Urbanites rely almost entirely on police and firefighters, doctors and ambulance drivers to ‘keep them safe’. OK, they also use insurance companies, rules and regulations. And lots of controls. But, generally speaking, a deeply rooted urbanite cannot protect their own budgie from their neighbour’s cat.

Urbanization also concentrates people. That makes them easier targets. Maybe they are NOT consciously targeted because of their density but wars seem to do that every now and then and, when that happens, it is absolutely intentionally. And epidemics and viruses do that naturally. Hell, even a bad urban fire includes way more than just the site of where the fire started.

Urbanization also, ironically, mentally isolates some, if not many. In Britain they have declared an epidemic of loneliness. Seems too many old people live alone and are isolated. And that causes health problems emphasizing mental health problems. Even the homeless feel better and safer in tent cities and groups. So, once you go broke, addicted and nuts, you finally have a (growing) peer group and are not lonely.

Part of isolation, of course, is the kind of work done in cities. Specialization puts space between the janitor and the surgeon, the lawyer and the mechanic. Specialization is a barrier to socialization. Specialization, status-defined neighbourhoods and commuting, mass transit and BIG BOX stores makes social interaction hurried and short if there is any at all. Hard to make friends at a Costco.

Readers know I have this bias. I think you are much healthier away from cities and the most I will concede as a compromise is very small towns. I actually think very small towns are probably the best – better than living isolated and remote – especially as you age. There are enough ‘comforts and services’ for the inadequately-abled but getting to know people from all walks of life is easier and inevitable. A town of 5 to 10,000 feels about right to me. But, to be fair, I am mostly just guessing.

“Dave, what’s your point?” We, as a species, are not being raised, bred, supported, trained, encouraged or even offered a path of being independently able or skilled. We are being programmed to work and live in an artificial society that leaves the majority of people entirely dependent. This is not a recipe for survival of the individual although it does serve the ‘system’ or the ‘machine’ or Big Brother. We have seemingly willingly joined a group ultimately destined for exploitation and then disposal. We are not able to survive in most threatening scenarios and many of those are looming up in the near or middle-distance future.

None of that bodes well.

More doom and gloom? I suppose so (apologies) …but I do not mean it that way. I am just trying to say out loud what maybe still needs saying. You know? Stating the obvious.

“So, what is that?”

Well now, that would be: Get out! GET OUT NOW!!! For most people (and, in ten years, probably Sal and me, too) that will mean a small town.

I am, perhaps, a bit too quick to complain and whine about crap and nonsense (GOMS: grouchy old man syndrome) but, if it is all good, I am even quicker to say so. And it is really good here right now. Two of Sal’s women friends came up to stay for a few days and, tho I am ‘the male’ and thus NOT always included, I am happy with that and I like their company when we do get together. Plus they did the dishes a few times. Good visit.

Let’s talk weather for a sec….it seems much of the world is ablaze or half underwater. China is unbelievable. Maui a tragedy. Even the south and eastern US is suffering a heat dome. And BC at this writing has hundreds of forest fires. But OTG right here is absolutely lovely. Yes, it is 86F/27C but we have had a lovely breeze most of the time and a major cooling blow during the night. It is literally idyllic.

Seems our local clam population has blossomed and Sal got enough clams for a large chowder all within one square foot of digging! That’s incredible. The berries are ripe and plentiful as well. Even the local guys are catching fish. Seems like a good salmon year,too.

We were ‘behind’ in our preparation for winter but we have gained some ground lately. Wood is 2/3 done and we will get there in time. Plus we now have surplus logs so we can get a start on the next winter. That’s a huge relief.

Trump will be digesting indictment #4 this week and it will include racketeering. Sane (?) Republicans are leaving him in droves. There will be a reckoning.

I suspect that there will be a mini reckoning for our boy wonder, too. I foresee a minority government with a short term and then new so-called leaders for the next election after that. I am guessing the Libs go with Chrystia Freeland after doofus-for-brains runs off with his new squeeze.

Sal is healing well. The boats are running well. The dogs are running well. The water is running well.

All good news, actually.