Heat and Humidity

When I was born in Springfield, Illinois, the heat and humidity were just part of Summer. I hated going down there after my parents got divorced, for no other reason than the ridiculously high humidity and the sweltering days. Now, the climate has shifted north and we are in the hot zone. Yesterday, it felt like I was a guppy, breathing water. It was supposedly the third highest humidity ever recorded here with dew points above eighty degrees. It made me feel sick. I had to force myself to eat something for lunch and other than a few cheese curds and a couple cucumbers, nothing else even sounded good. The combination of high heat and humidity make it difficult to cool a body down and for many, exhaustion ensues. I am much happier when the temperature is fifty or below. My theory is that you can always put on more clothes if you need them, but even if I had been naked yesterday, I would have felt overheated.

What was most striking about the weather yesterday was that it just seemed to make me angry. It did not help that I was working under the conditions dictated by someone who had no idea how to get the job done easily or with any sort of common sense, but that is just a small part of the picture. The work was over an hour away by car and although the traffic was light, it still seemed way too far to drive for the amount of money I would be making. Add to this the horrible first-day traffic snarl that occurs in and around EAA and their annual Air Venture Fly -in. We had to drive over ten miles to get my carpool riders in and another ten miles to get out and back in after lunch break. Added to this, the work should have been done in less than half the time, but because of stupid decisions made along the way by "the boss", we had to spend even more time and effort doing things twice and then three times in some cases.

Hiring professionals is usually done when you need skilled workers, but this guy seemed to think we were just glorified temp workers with no skills or experience. In my case, and in the case of at least one of my fellow workers, our individual experience was quite possibly greater than his entire life span. Now, before you let that sink all the way in, I must add that we were both nearly double his age, we both grew up in the theater and we both tend to work smarter, not harder. All the heavy shit (about two tons of cable and wire) were on wheels when he arrived. The first order of business, as he said was to unload all of the copper out of the boxes and onto the floor, taking the wheels out of the picture for the rest of the day. Indeed, he did have a detailed drawing of where every pre-labeled end was supposed to be placed on the several sticks of truss... (which filled a room as large as an airport hangar) We should have placed each coil near the middle of the run, pulled half off in the direction of where it was supposed to end up, flipped the coil and run the rest out toward the source of power, but that would have made sense.

Perhaps the weather was only a small part of how angry it got me, but after struggling all day to make things work, get them finished and looking pretty, the last step of the day was equally grim. We had practiced exemplary cable management and could have gotten the last step done in about twenty minutes, but he told us that we needed to stretch out the coils and recoil them before they were sent to the dimmer racks, from which power flowed. Another ton of cable being pulled out and back nearly 100 feet was the last thing we wanted to do late in the day, but he was the boss. This leads me to the main point of my Heat and Humidity rant. The entire climate change issue is the result of letting ignorant people lacking all common sense make important decisions for the rest of us.

Since 1984 I have had the experiences of riding my bicycle around all five Great Lakes to spread the word about how to live a more enriching life, a more rewarding, full and passionate life, while using less resources and conserving the natural wonder and beauty of our planet at the same time. Back then, some called it voluntary simplicity or self-sufficiency, I called it living better for less; today, we call it sustainability.

The self-centered oligarchs just see what they want, nothing else matters. however many of us need to be maimed, killed or thrown to the curb it is of little consequence as long as the wealthiest among us continue to get their way. I used to love working with the company that I worked for yesterday, they were a big corporate player, but their middle level managers respected the stagehands union enough to let us get work done without very much interference. When this guy told us to do the opposite of what made sense, or what was smart, we should have said "No.", or at least "If you want that done, you will have to do it yourself." Instead, we resigned ourselves to doing more than double the work for the same pay and welcomed our difficult row to hoe.  The heat and humidity had taken their toll on our reasoning skills, but there was no reason to abandon our experience and skills fo rthe sake of a guy who had no clue.

We continue to break records for heat and humidity across the nation. For those of you who still think climate change is a myth, check out a few sources of information. The human species has forever changed climate, we have tools at our disposal that can change the course of our destructive actions, but we lack the will to make better choices. We have the power to stand up, with one voice, and say, "No!" all we lack seems to be the will. climatechangepsychology at blogspot is a good place to start.

What Be the Rewards?

A little over two years ago, I purchased a solar panel. It is the most low tech device that I know of. Imagine a large box low and flat, like the shirt boxes that will be found under the Christmas Tree in a few days. Of course, mine is larger, (seven feet by twenty) and air tight, except for a small inlet and a small outlet. The side of the box that faces South is covered with fiberglass, relatively clear. The rest of the box is covered with insulation. People who sell more high tech devices often call this type of collector "Scorched Air" because it removes air from the house, warms it up, and brings it back into the living space. Inside the box is a bi-metal thermostat that automatically turns on the fan that blows air into the device when the temperature inside the box reaches a predetermined temperature. To keep cold air from cycling back into the house when the fan stops, two automatic dampers close when the fan is off.

Yesterday, I spent a few minutes brushing the snow off the panel and was rewarded by the soothing hum of the fan. Even though our high temp was only twelve degrees, the panel was able to bring one-hundred degree air into the house. Warmed by the sun, powered by a twenty-two watt squirrel cage fan. The entire system paid itself off in under two years. In year one, the panel provided about twenty percent of the home's heat budget. Now, due to creatively changing just a couple things, the panel is making up about forty percent of our heating needs. Rather than using unheated basement air and pressurizing the living space as I did at first, we now use air from the living space to feed the panel, increasing the efficiency and increasing the hours that the fan runs each day.

I am saving money that would otherwise be spent on energy, but this is not what makes me happiest. Knowing that with no major upkeep, this panel should last another thirty years or more makes me feel pretty good. Keeping the place comfortable without burdening the furnace feels pretty good as well. My favorite part is knowing that the sun really will come out tomorrow. During the coldest spells we get during the winter, it is usually crystal clear and the panel works all day long. In the spring and early fall, we use the extra dry and warm air to dry clothes, veggies and herbs. When it gets too hot in the house, we just unplug the entire system.

The most curious thing is that this whole system was created back in the early seventies and has been providing heat ever since. I bought the system used when trees grew up in front of the panel for a second time. The former owner installed it outside his home that was in a suburban area. When trees grew too large to let the sunshine in, he moved to a different home further out in the suburbs. Trees there grew up there too and shaded the panel again, so I bought the thirty-five year old system for about what it cost to build back in the seventies. Where I placed it, in an older neighborhood, the trees are all mature, and there is still plenty of sun, so I won't have the problems that he did.

Why do we continue to deny the fact that solar is a good way to go? Why is the focus on producing electricity, which is more difficult and expensive? I am stumped by the inability of people to see the benefit that would come from requiring similar systems on all new construction in areas that need heat in the winter.

While our elected officials talk about making progress toward energy efficiency, hoping for a seventeen percent reduction in energy use over the next two decades, or by increasing efficiency over the next generation, I have done more than twice as much with virtually no funding, in less than two months. Those who make their money on things staying the same will never get behind the changes that will require them to live on less, or to re-educate themselves. Corporados want to talk about costs, the displacement, the turmoil that they hype as the "result" of doing the right thing. My belief is that doing things wrong because they benefit business as usual is both short-sighted and irresponsible. The workers that will be displaced when we change our goal to sustainability will have to get jobs that support and enhance our planet, and her people, rather than raping it, and them. No talking heads have cogent arguments for environmental degradation. The "powers that be" are, and have always been afraid of change. We must drag them kicking and screaming into the future that we can plainly see is possible. Corporate Welfare recipients will not let go of their billions without a fight.

I hope and pray that you too will one day know the beautiful sound of "free" heat coming from the sun. This is just one tiny piece of the puzzle of how to live in harmony with the planet. There are millions of answers to the question, what can one person do to make positive change in the world. "Take your time, think a lot, why think of everything you've got, for you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not."- Cat Stevens. When we finally figure out how to mimic nature, creating no waste, living in community, with respect for all beings, we will be well on our way to solving many of the problems that plague humanity. We Believed in change. We voted for Barack. We even made him the President. Now we have to fight for him. Show the Corporate Outlaws that we mean business. Remember, The Constitution says: "One person one vote", not one dollar one vote.