Transition Towns

 

Locally grown foods sold at a farmers market

So I just heard of this thing called Transition Towns, and I am in the process of joining one.  The overall idea is to adjust to life without oil and with climate changes in order to make life “Post Oil” livable and even enjoyable.  Read more here.

The first problems which come to mind are our oil dependencies in the areas of food and heating.  

I am writing from central Illinois, so food is all around us, but delivering it to the rest of the country/world will become impossible.  Industrial agriculture is also dependant on oil.  Without our tractors, combines, and other oil driven machines our capacity to produce will be diminished.

Living in the mid-west is an exercise in suffering the elements.  This year we had several cold snaps lasting for more than a week during which the temperature did not raise above zero degrees Fahrenheit.  No amount of insulation would have kept our house warm enough without gas heating.

Further Post Oil challenges include but are not limited to transportation, medical care, law and order, art, and education.

The climate change element is something I am not certain we can completely prepare for.  The idea of unpredictable weather patterns disrupting agriculture and displacing large urban populations is staggering.  Does that mean the interior of continents should prepare to host millions of refugees?  To do so while facing food and transportation shortages is going to be a challenge if we don’t have an oil free solution ready to implement when crisis strikes.

Being Married, It’s Different.

Last month I got married to a wonderful woman named Karen. It was just a month ago, but I am going to weigh in on my experiences thus far. It is, of course different. We wouldn’t hold a big party and change names and banking information if it were not different. It is good difference. But here are some things I have learned about.

Literally sleeping together. Simple right? Not at all. The first week or so neither of us got much sleep. I turn and toss in my sleep. She likes to be warm and hates cold, I like to feel cool and I hate feeling hot. We both snore. And now, the last several nights when we lay down I have been feeling chatty.

Here’s a trick for anybody who shares these problems. Games. That’s right. It starts by one of us saying a word like ‘Illinois’ the other can answer any number of ways, but how they answer the first time defines the game. For example: answering ‘Springfield’, then responding ‘California’, the correct answer would be ‘Sacramento’. The second person could have just a easily answered ‘USA’, and responded with ‘Bavaria’ (the answer is ‘Germany’). It really makes you search for a while for something you know for certain, but your spouse wouldn’t know. That is when you fall asleep.

Openness. I am not an open person. Working and living with another person has forced openness on me. I think of something I don’t want her to know, and then I realize two things: 1) She will find out, and 2) when she does, the fact I wasn’t open will hurt her more than the concealed matter would have hurt both of us combined.

One funny outcome is that I tell her things she doesn’t care about, or would never be upset over me not sharing. For example: She asks what me what I’m thinking about, and I answer honestly that I was day-dreaming about being in a rock band, and playing rock music alternating between instruments. Karen then tells me I am random. Some mornings I tell her about the cigarette dream I had the night before (it is a recurring dream of mine, where I smoke one or many cigarettes). She would be sad if I really smoked one, but she doesn’t care if I dream about it.