In 2004, I spent the year in the Greater London area. When I first arrived, I stayed with a relative who lived next door to someone who lived in a big house and drove an obnoxious 4x4 (it should be noted that the most hazardous thing in that neighborhood was the leaves that collected on the verges in the evenings). The pretentious neighbor had landscaped their garden to have a "natural" pedestal on which the Discovery was parked every night. There were also some subtle garden lights around the little knoll to show their 4x4 in good light overnight. I snorted at how flash they were trying to be 1) for living in that neighborhood (there were only named houses on that road, not numbered ones), 2) for driving such an obnoxious car and 3) for displaying it so ostentatiously (seriously, do the words "living green" mean nothing to them?).
Skip forward to today. We've been having electricity trouble of late (as in, a maximum of six hours per day, usually in the wee hours of the morning. We're told it's because the main power station has died from lack of maintenance. The official line from the power company complaints line is that it "should be fixed by the end of the year"), and Mum was complaining about the power-cuts and our inability to afford a generator to a friend at church. Said friend (read: angel) told Mum that he knew of someone who was selling a generator. Long story short, we're getting a genny...not a big one, not one powerful enough to run the fridge and freezer or geyser, but enough to keep the lights, laptop and TV/satellite dish going. It's ot a wind or solar powered one (I'm working on a design for one that combines both for when my parents move house), which is unfortunate, but we'll take what we can get at this point so a diesel-powered one it is.
Mum and I were sitting in the lounge chatting this afternoon and she asked where we were going to put the generator. My first instinct was to say "In a shrine, framed by mirrors so we can fully admire it, in the front garden, with space to kneel before it and chant 'Oh magnificent giver of power, we praise God for you' whenever we need to use it." Then it hit me that I'd be doing exactly what the pompous neighbors in Surrey did with their Discovery. Yes, I know, we'd need to put the generator somewhere near the electricity mains box where it's protected from the weather, but allow me to dwell on the point for a moment. Perhaps what we choose to display in front of our houses says a lot about our priorities. Our family's priority is obviously not looking cool, but surviving. As fossil fuel reserves dwindle, we're going to need to switch to more sustainable ways of meeting our energy needs. When we get a wind generator (I've already got one picked out. It's adorable. It's called a Turby and it doesn't mind turbulent wind), I have a suspicion that I'm going to plant pretty flowers around the base to decorate it so that the neighborhood can also admire the beauty of wind power.
Skip forward to today. We've been having electricity trouble of late (as in, a maximum of six hours per day, usually in the wee hours of the morning. We're told it's because the main power station has died from lack of maintenance. The official line from the power company complaints line is that it "should be fixed by the end of the year"), and Mum was complaining about the power-cuts and our inability to afford a generator to a friend at church. Said friend (read: angel) told Mum that he knew of someone who was selling a generator. Long story short, we're getting a genny...not a big one, not one powerful enough to run the fridge and freezer or geyser, but enough to keep the lights, laptop and TV/satellite dish going. It's ot a wind or solar powered one (I'm working on a design for one that combines both for when my parents move house), which is unfortunate, but we'll take what we can get at this point so a diesel-powered one it is.
Mum and I were sitting in the lounge chatting this afternoon and she asked where we were going to put the generator. My first instinct was to say "In a shrine, framed by mirrors so we can fully admire it, in the front garden, with space to kneel before it and chant 'Oh magnificent giver of power, we praise God for you' whenever we need to use it." Then it hit me that I'd be doing exactly what the pompous neighbors in Surrey did with their Discovery. Yes, I know, we'd need to put the generator somewhere near the electricity mains box where it's protected from the weather, but allow me to dwell on the point for a moment. Perhaps what we choose to display in front of our houses says a lot about our priorities. Our family's priority is obviously not looking cool, but surviving. As fossil fuel reserves dwindle, we're going to need to switch to more sustainable ways of meeting our energy needs. When we get a wind generator (I've already got one picked out. It's adorable. It's called a Turby and it doesn't mind turbulent wind), I have a suspicion that I'm going to plant pretty flowers around the base to decorate it so that the neighborhood can also admire the beauty of wind power.
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