WinSol +

Do you really want to go off grid? what does that mean? putting your phone in airplane mode?  buying a remote island?  For most people it's about leaving the mainstream city and doing the off-grid full monty - like almost homesteading.   For me it was about getting off the 'dreadmill' : the hamster wheel of modern living. Now is the time.  why?  because  the sky is blue,    because the sooner you make the move, the happier you'll be    because it's way cheaper than the mainstream lifestyle       because there's a creeping breakdown of infrastructure services, ever            escalating fees & taxes and regulations, growing disparities in our           society, and now the COVID19 pandemic           because the earlier you start making mistakes, the quicker you'll learn          ...

we homosapiens are programmed to be tribal - we define ourselves through social circles – from families to communities to countries.  Over eons we have set up boundaries and raged battles within and across those boundaries. Modern tribes can range from a group of strangers at Starbucks or 100,000 screaming soccer/football fans and everything in between. Music concerts are as much about the experience of thousands of people elbow to elbow than it is about the music and a stage one can barely see.      will we ever see this again? This COVID19 pandemic has pulled the rug of human contact experiences out from under us. I miss that human experience.  Living alone in a remote forest sanctuary has many, many blessings, but I direly need human contact at least once a week – even something as lame as sitting in a crowded Starbucks. Lately I’ve enjoyed waiting in long lines at the market. Hey, it’s as close I can get to human contact(lessness?). I...

Color me rosy.  I think we'll be better off going thru this global pandemic than before.   Not the clean air, not the lower fossil fuel use, not the open roads - no, my optimism is grounded in our psyche. The only good thing that Freud every said (in my limited opinion) is that people will do anything to distract themselves from being by themselves:  they'll go shopping, to the theater, to a concert - anything but being alone with ourselves. Cuz then we have to deal with our internal demons, our disappointments, our ... everything that is us:  our own mental health. This morning I was standing in line at the grocery store and noticed the person in front of me frantically looking around at every product display within eye sight.   And then i looked at other people in line, and there were quite a few people also glancing around.  I had that urge too - did I forget something?  is there something else I need to buy?  And it dawned on me tha...