Modern Life

"Andrew Gideon" wrote

I'm trying to picture this, and I cannot quite. Two weeks to rebuild 1707
NYC or Philadelphia or London?

Yeah, I'm still chuckling about that one, too. Even a city of a tenth of
the size of one of those! g
--
Jim in NC

On Feb 25, 10:01 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
As we lived through our ice storm these last couple of days, it's been
interesting to note the reaction of people deprived of amenities that
didn't even exist when I was a boy.

- Guests at the hotel, deprived of cable TV, have been grudgingly
understanding -- but only because we offer DVD movies, free for the
borrowing. Without that, we'd be facing demands of refunds, I'm
certain.

- My kids, deprived of both internet and TV (danged cable modem), were
befuddled, and took refuge in reading and DVDs (once the power came
back on)...

- I found myself frustrated, knowing full-well that my 60 to 70 emails
per day were still coming in, even though I was unable to clear them
from home. (Luckily, our DSL lines at the hotel never faltered...)
And, of course, I couldn't get my daily dose of rec.aviation.

As we sat in the dark, by the light of dynamo-crank-LED lights
(something else that was science-fiction when I was a kid), I tried to
explain to my kids that this was life as my grandparents knew it
growing up -- EVERY DAY. No electricity, no phones, no TV, no radio.
This was NORMAL.

What's really amazing is how unprepared people are for these kinds of
disruptions. Mary and I have all sorts of survival and camping gear,
a good supply of drinking water and food, and enough fire wood to heat
the house for several days. Both of our primary vehicles are 4-wheel
drive, and kept in good working order.

In short, we're ready for the crap that Mother Nature throws at us
here in the Midwest.

We saw people driving sports cars into the hotel parking lots, wearing
SHORTS and sweatshirts. They had no winter gear, no warm clothing,
and were absolutely astounded to hear that Interstate 80 was closed.
They were abadoning their homes, because the power was out, and
heading to any available hotel room.

These people would literally DIE if their cars broke down, or at the
very least would have to be rescued by the State Patrol. What the
hell are they *thinking*? The Governor declares a state of
emergency, and these folks are out driving in shorts and a
sweatshirt?

And it's not just dumb people, not to that extreme. What our kids
regard as "basic living" -- computers, cell phones, internet, instant
messaging, FaceBook, XM satellite radio, Nexrad radar, 500-channels of
crap on TV -- only existed in Isaac Asimov novels when I was growing
up. To watch as they come face-to-face with the reality of life
*without* these creature comforts -- even for just a couple of days --
was enlightening, and more than a little scary.

Sure, my kids go camping, and we "rough it" for a week or so each year
-- but their daily societal expectations are so high, and the distance
those expectations fall when the power grid fails is so great -- that
I really wonder what we're doing to our kids.

This is a generation that has never seen hardship, never seen high
unemployment, never seen high interest rates, never seen wide-spread
poverty, never (despite Iraq) seen war. And their electronic
"information age" creature comforts are so entirely energy dependent,
and so ingrained in their lifestyle, that they are rendered helpless
when the power fails. Between "global warming" and soaring energy
prices, can this type of lifestyle be long sustained?

Worse, my kids have grown accustomed to being whisked across the
country in an airplane, at a moment's notice, and simply *expect*
everything to work, every day, dammit. Mary and I are trying to
instill a self-sufficient work ethic in them that will allow them to
survive in "the real world" -- but their "real world" has changed so
much in the last 20 years that it would not even be recognizable to my
grand-parents, dead only since the 1970s...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


You might disagree with me, but I see all this as human progress. With
progress comes expectations, for better or for worse. The reason
people expect electricity, phones and heating to never fail is
because, well, they almost never fail. This enables them to focus
their energy on things other than basic survival matters.

Then again, your great^3 grandparents might have considered your
great^2 grandparents to be 'spoiled' because they bought their food at
the store instead of growing it themselves. What would they eat if
there were no stores for miles, and the horse was sick?

Jay Honeck writes:

This is a generation that has never seen hardship, never seen high
unemployment, never seen high interest rates, never seen wide-spread
poverty, never (despite Iraq) seen war.

There are a lot of kids (and adults) in the United States seeing hardship and
high unemployment. They just don't happen to be yours. The middle class is
disappearing in the United States.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

There are a lot of kids (and adults) in the United States seeing hardship and
high unemployment. They just don't happen to be yours. The middle class is
disappearing in the United States.

No, there are a lot of uneducated parents (who were themselves raised
by substandard parents) raising kids who are seeing hardship and high
unemployment. Many of these kids are being raised in broken homes by
single parents. Counter-intuitively, nowadays many are single parents
by choice, despite single-parenthood being the single most reliable
predicter of poverty.

It's sad, but it's no one's fault -- and I refuse to feel guilty about
it.

America is full of opportunities for those who wish to take advantage
of them. No one here needs to suffer -- and the vast majority do not.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
[sorry, missed OP on this paragraph]
There are a lot of kids (and adults) in the United States seeing hardship and
high unemployment. They just don't happen to be yours. The middle class is
disappearing in the United States.

[back to Jay]
No, there are a lot of uneducated parents (who were themselves raised
by substandard parents) raising kids who are seeing hardship and high
unemployment. Many of these kids are being raised in broken homes by
single parents. Counter-intuitively, nowadays many are single parents
by choice, despite single-parenthood being the single most reliable
predicter of poverty.

I would like to point out that in the Denver area, when teenagers
are looking for a summer or part-time job now, they are asked if
they are bi-lingual in english and spanish.

America is full of opportunities for those who wish to take advantage
of them. No one here needs to suffer -- and the vast majority do not.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
exist when I was a boy.

- Guests at the hotel, deprived of cable TV, have been
grudgingly understanding -- but only because we offer DVD
movies, free for the borrowing. Without that, we'd be facing
demands of refunds, I'm certain.

- My kids, deprived of both internet and TV (danged cable
modem), were befuddled, and took refuge in reading and DVDs
(once the power came back on)...


Nobody wanted to fly the Kiwi?

- My kids, deprived of both internet and TV (danged cable
modem), were befuddled, and took refuge in reading and DVDs
(once the power came back on)...

Nobody wanted to fly the Kiwi?

The Kiwi is at the hotel. We were at home.

Thankfully, other than a few blinks, we never lost power at the hotel.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Feb 25, 10:01 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
What's really amazing is how unprepared people are for these kinds of
disruptions. [...]

Heh. And businesses, too. Whenever a storm knocks out power, it's
ridiculous to be standing in line at the local grocery store, because
there's nothing anyone can do without modern price scanners. (If
they had the price attached, as in the old days, then you could make
do, of course.)

As for our home, I'll always keep regular phone service and an old
Princess phone to connect with. It's amazing how many of our
neighbors have cable phones and lose all comms during power (or just
cable) outages. During the big blackout, even cell towers ran out of
juice. And even those with a regular phone, often only have cordless
phones which won't work without power!

Kev

Kev writes:

As for our home, I'll always keep regular phone service and an old
Princess phone to connect with. It's amazing how many of our
neighbors have cable phones and lose all comms during power (or just
cable) outages. During the big blackout, even cell towers ran out of
juice. And even those with a regular phone, often only have cordless
phones which won't work without power!

Note that both systems depend on electricity, it's just that the telephone
company has different notions of "reliable service" than the cable company.

I used to have cable outages several times a week, and even today, cable
service is often very unreliable. In contrast, the U.S. telephone system was
designed for 2 hours of downtime in _40 years_, and it actually achieves this.
Both systems use similar technology, but the management philosophies are very
different.

This is one reason why I have ADSL through my telephone company, instead of a
cable modem or broadband through a non-telecom provider. The telephone system
is always up and running.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Feb 25, 9:01 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
As we lived through our ice storm these last couple of days, it's been
interesting to note the reaction of people deprived of amenities that
didn't even exist when I was a boy.

Worse, my kids have grown accustomed to being whisked across the
country in an airplane, at a moment's notice, and simply *expect*
everything to work, every day, dammit. Mary and I are trying to
instill a self-sufficient work ethic in them that will allow them to
survive in "the real world" -- but their "real world" has changed so
much in the last 20 years that it would not even be recognizable to my
grand-parents, dead only since the 1970s...

One only needs to look at New Orleans to see how unprepared people are
to survive in the real world. Most expect their lifestyle to be
guarenteed.
--
Gene Seibel
The Farm - http://pad39a.com/gene/farm.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.