Switching to Sustainable Energy

Windmills were pulled down or blown up. One of the funniest sights I saw was someone trying to pull a windmill down with a car. We never learned if it was staged or not. But the body of the car separated from the frame when the driver floored the gas. We still laugh over that. Silly car.

Dams were blown up. Lots of people died from the flooding.

People started just blowing more stuff up: water and sewer plants, power plants, refineries. Nothing was safe. Before the electricity failed, we were told the gulf was on fire.

And we couldn’t have gone without a good ole fashion book burning. It didn’t matter what the book was, as long as it would burn.

When you start talking about phasing out or redefining people’s jobs, temperatures rise. Alternative energy sources were not as labor intensive as oil, gas, and coal. It also took a different skill set. It was up to the individual to adapt and overcome. All the government programs designed to retrain employees that were laid off ran out of money in one year.

The government push for everyone to drive electric cars broke the power grid. “A first world country with a third world power grid”* transformed into no power grid in less than 2 years.

There wasn’t enough rare Earth elements to build all the batteries required. New battery technology couldn’t keep up.

The definition of wealth changed. If you owned your house or drove anything, or if you were overweight, you were considered wealthy. All the worlds banks collapsed before I was able to pay my house off. Because; there were so many people out of work, the government let people stay where they were. Can you imagine; by these new standards I’m wealthy. This is laughable.

My old 2012, I transformed into a solar car. The last thing I learned off the internet before it crashed. Yes, the internet failed. Cellphones failed. Banks failed. Grocery stores failed.

I was never able to afford an electric car or the ability to have a charging station put at my house.

I guess people don’t try to hurt me because I let folks camp in my yard and bathe in the creek. Because I do have solar, I will let people charge their phones. In exchange for something to eat. Sometimes something to read. It just depends on my current need. I have had people sit on my carport and weep when their smartphones charged and they could see pictures of their loved ones or hear their voices from old voice messages.

Each person has a different story. Different loss. Sam lost his job when we ran out of jet fuel. Jan’s truck ran out of diesel in Livingston.

People were sharing stories they had heard from their parents or grandparents about the 1970’s energy crisis. Was this worse? It’s always worse when it’s happening to you. No gas. No oil. People just quit. The human spirit is broken. Living from day to day is all that matters now. My how times have changed.

I always thought I’d live out my old age in a nursing home. I never thought I’d be sitting on my porch, tent city in my yard, gun across my lap, doing nothing. Wasting time.

What I wouldn’t give to have my bestie back. She chose (with good reason) not to have her brain downloaded into a computer. Though I struggle to hear her voice, it’s better this way. Were her eyes brown or gray? I can’t remember.

It’s the little things that get us by now. Some evening, we sit around a fire and I listen to people talk about where they are from. Where they are going and why? 90% of the stories are children going home to their parents. There is a need to make sure their person is alive.

Having friends is a rare commodity. I’d you have a friend; someone I can trust. You are wealthy beyond measure. If you have a true friend, it is a gift from God. ‘My friend.’ I still have the luxury of calling him, ‘my friend.’ Time hasn’t taken that away from me.

*Dianne Wiest as Shirley Abbott Secretary of Energy from Category 6 Day of Destruction 2004