Article urges citizens to give up modernity for "simpler life"

I read an article, commentary really, that said we should eschew the comforts of modern life for the sake of the planet. Walk, ride a bike, take a train or bus, but for God’s sake don’t drive. Dress for hot weather in summer and cool/cold in winter, and leave the ac turned up and the heater setting low…go outside at night in summer, and leave the plasma TV off.

All good ideas   

The tenor of the article though was a bit off to me. The author made assumptions that people would begin to bond with all the free time away from TV, children would flourish since they would be forced to play outside, given that the TV and associated video gaming consoles would be disabled, childhood obesity would disappear, neighborhoods would once again be “like the old days”, where we cared about each other, actually knew each other. Utopia is at hand!

Nice. Nice dream. What I think main stream media journalist in big cities tend to forget is the rest of the country. People like me that live in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of town, or like my brother who has a small ranch in the mountains, where he typically gets snowed in 2-8 times a year. 

Many of you are, like me, using a form of broadband internet, either DSL by the local phone company, or perhaps via a cable company. Some use dial-up…and probably not because they want to.

See, where I live, people in the city have the option for Wi-Fi, DSL, and all sorts of connections, while out here in Podunk, we begged for even low bandwidth DSL for years…seriously, I have had DSL for the last 6 years, after the phone company decided too many of my neighbors were opting for cable or satellite (see, the free market does work). Our recent big upgrade means I can actually watch video on my computer! Did you know that! Video…dang, what will they think of next…lol

And living here where the temp in summer routinely exceeds 100F, and stays in the 90-100 range from June thru October or early November, air conditioning is a real blessing. And we  try to keep out humble home a comfortable 80…our ceiling fans do most of the cooling…

Transportation by car has greatly expanded the ability of people here about  to get to town, which was not always an easy task. And I am not talking about 100 years ago either. The bridge that connects us to town was built in 1987; before that, it was a farm road that came to a two lane crossing that flooded in winter, meaning a 20 mile detour to get to the highway, and then another 18 to town.

Out here in Podunk we got fancy plasma HDTV because the gubment changed the broadcast standard, and we decided to trade up. Still have a tube TV or 2 in the house, since cable decided to go up in price (and service didn't’t improve) so we switched to satellite TV, and the tuner boxes work fine…yup, here in Podunk, we like our modern conveniences.

Being able to get to town in only half an hour summer or winter, watching TV while the cooling night air slowly goes from 100 to 80, being able to sleep without being sweaty…yup, guess we won’t do what that author said.

I am not going to apologize for trying to live comfortable. Not wasteful, just comfortable.. I already dress seasonal, have to. We walk to the grocery down the road, or the sandwich shop nearby; we do walk over to the farmers market on Sunday to get vegetables and fruit. So stop beating up on us.

Now, can I go back to drinking my solar brewed ice tea?