Category: low-footprint living

Cloudy weather forecast in some of the eclipse tourist zones. Is it too much to hope that thousands or even millions of people will cancel their flights?

I get that a total eclipse is cool to see, but getting on an airplane just for that??? I think it lasts like five minutes or something. Lifestyles of the rich and famous have gone “mass market.”

So I guess what it is, is “lifestyles of the middle class imitating the rich and famous.”

I think it’s very cool to experience total darkness and near-total darkness. I have experienced it on some nights in the desert when I was living in Texas. Maybe if we would prioritize ecologically responsible lighting and dark night skies, more of us might get to experience it on a steadier basis. I know it’s not the same thing as witnessing the sun get totally blocked out in the middle of the day, but come on, is it really worth the whole footprint and hassle of a plane trip? Seems like just another form of conspicuous consumption.

Maybe if more of us spent more time appreciating the wonders happening throughout the year in our home places, we wouldn’t feel the need to be jetsetting around the planet chasing novelty and the “big things.”

I was once seated at a table with a bunch of middle-class people who were telling endless stories of the four and five and six cruises they had been on this year.

One woman had gone up to Iceland or some other distant land to see a volcano, only to not be able to see the volcano because it didn’t erupt obediently on schedule. Imagine spending all that money and being part of all that eco-footprint of a giant ship, and you don’t even get the money shot. She definitely seemed miffed.

Ironically, this table of people I was sitting with was at an event where citizens were brainstorming how to bring more tourism to our home city, Daytona Beach. (I actually think we have a sufficient amount of tourism, so I was there to talk about how we could promote our place has a good place to live full-time.)

The people sitting at my table with me were volunteer tourism ambassadors for our city. And all they did was talk about their incessant trips to other places. It was weird and depressing.

Similarly, the trend of jetting off to a Maui volcano or Costa Rica jungle or other Facebook status destination to attend a new-age bongo-banging dreamcatcher-dangling, crystal-hanging disco party at the rustically exclusive “eco resort” (made possible by nudging the original inhabitants off the land in various ways) or whatever. Ugh. Just really sad. We could just face the fact that our home culture sucks in many ways, and set about fixing that, instead of chasing status and pristine nature and mind-trips all over the planet. Let’s give other people their countries back now please.

Regarding the eclipse, I was relieved to see that at least a few others feel similar. More than one person this week has quoted from that old famous Carly Simon song You’re So Vain: “… flew your Lear Jet to Nova Scotia, to see a total eclipse of the sun …”

PS. All of that said, a lot of people, me included, are not in the path of totality but are definitely planning to step out and experience the partial eclipse! The crescent-shaped shadows you see on the ground in a partial eclipse are really cool! Whether you’re in the total path or the partial path, the eclipse is something we can all enjoy. Just by stepping out in our yard or balcony, or maybe a nearby park, ball field, riverfront, or beach.

Same as we do for the moonrise, sunset, beautiful clouds, etc.

When we were kids, back in the 60s and 70s, it was pretty common to pitch a tent in the backyard and go camping. I don’t know if kids do that much anymore. I always enjoyed it, and I think it might not be a bad idea even for adults without kids to do it from time to time. And it’s definitely a great idea for adults with kids, I would say!

It can even be combined with basic disaster drill skill -type stuff, while still being fun for the whole family and feeling like a party.

A few months ago, I found a dome-style tent abandoned on the beach. It was missing its fiberglass structural poles, and had no stakes with it or anything.

I decided to try to use the tent to create a campsite in my little urban yard. My thought was to build a little bamboo structure to hold up the tent.

Well, the other day I finally got around to cutting the bamboo poles to a suitable length and lashing them together to form roughly a cube-shaped structure. Also used some palm-fronds of the type that people frequently leave at curbside as “yard waste.” I was pleased with the results.

And today, I cut a bunch of dried lemongrass away from my lemongrass plants, and used it for an underlying mulch since I didn’t have any pine-straw left from my last delivery.

And then for a ground cloth, I used a former housemate’s air mattress that had popped & that I previously cut up in order to be able to use it as a durable plastic sheet material for something. (I had been using the sheets to cover a couple of my rain tubs — and sometimes, during super rainy times, to cover the compost pile to keep it from getting waterlogged — but I hadn’t been very pleased with it in those applications, largely because it didn’t look nice.)

After spreading out the ground cloth, I set up the tent by tying its loops to various parts of the bamboo structure.

The result is 99.9% invisible from the sidewalk even if you are looking for it. I’m lucky I happened to find an abandoned tent that was in subdued color rather than bright colors. It’s gray, with black mesh material and a couple areas of grass-green.

Everything used in this project was rescued from the waste-stream — from the tent itself, to the bamboo, to the strips of cloth I used to lash the bamboo poles & palm fronds together to make the structure.

I am looking forward to camping in my yard whenever I want! And offering accommodation to similarly minded friends who might be visiting.

You can see pics of my little bamboo structure and tent site here, on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page.

Update: Last night I slept in the tent and it was delightful. This will definitely be the coolest place to sleep when the weather starts getting hot. I always tell people one of the keys to living happily without air-conditioning is to not try to hang out in buildings too much in the hot season. Or as I sometimes phrase it, “S.O.B. — that is, “Stay outta buildings!”

Sleeping outdoors, or in a screened porch, etc. is a great way to spend the summer. Last summer, to me, felt like the hottest summer ever, and I spent several weeks of it sleeping on bare ceramic tile in the room that has the most windows. But staying outdoors would’ve been more comfortable, and now I have a mosquito-free way to do that.

A bookstore posted a meme on his social media page. A cute cartoon of a book performing CPR on a young person. Out of the young person’s mouth were spewing the poisons of social media icons.

Reading is one of the deepest joys in life, as far as I’m concerned. And, books transform hearts and save lives for sure.

I probably read 75 or 100 books a year. Many in my professional field, but probably an equal or even greater number of fiction works. And I have probably learned as much about life and reality, and figuring out who I am, from reading fiction as I have from reading non-fiction! I love and value books.

That said, I am not cool with demonizing cell phones, social media, etc.

And, the corollary to that, we older people need to stop disparaging the younger generations for their use of cell phones and social media. People seek truth and connection, and they will find it where it’s available. Our society doesn’t always make those things very available. And there have been many centralized gatekeeper institutions running things for too long.

Telecommunications technology has probably done more for various social movements than anything we could have imagined.

Of course there is always going to be misinformation out there, and there will always be people with evil intentions out there, but it comes in all forms and channels, both in written books and on social media and on TV and in the movies – and in person to person communication as well. We will always have the task of sorting through huge volume of words and chatter and the noise of daily life to find the kernels of our truth.

A Facebook page I follow called “Revitalize, or die” posted the above oft-repeated assertion. And then posted a rebuttal:

“Fact: Yes you can. The tools are available. Raise your standards. Go after deadbeat owners. Decide that enough is enough.”

I would really like to have a discussion about this matter of vacant property in our community. It’s an issue that is common to all of the historic core areas of our city.

Many cities have enacted vacancy taxes. However, it’s possible that here in Florida, a strong property rights culture, that this would not fly. In our society there is a widespread belief that a property owner owes nothing to the community, as long as they pay the property taxes and cut the grass. The concept of civic duty seems to have worn thin.

But maybe there are some means other than ordinances at our disposal. Perhaps some public social shaming/pressure might not be out of order. And it may be more effective than ordinances.

Another thing that might help would be some kind of program to make it easier for locals to buy a house, so that not so many buildings get snapped up by these big investment companies.

Living next to vacant apartment buildings and vacant houses is so demoralizing, and it’s infuriating all the more because there is such a housing crunch.

Another negative impact of vacancy (be it commercial or residential) is that if there are not enough residents, businesses don’t find it worth their while to set up shop in our neighborhoods. In fact, many businesses close up and pull out.

There is also the additional law-enforcement labor and expense involved to do the extra policing that empty buildings require, because empty buildings are a crime magnet. This takes away resources that would be better used for urgent needs such as stormwater mitigation, parks and recreation, human services. Our police should not have to basically serve as a private security force for property owners who don’t care enough about the community to do anything except use our neighborhoods as their monopoly board.

I used to wonder how people could be so wealthy that they could leave buildings sitting empty and not get any rent. Or leave lots sitting empty for decades and never build anything on them. But, thanks to some features of the tax code, many property owners get a tax writeoff, which makes it all the more frustrating.

Widespread vacancy affects transportation and car-dependence as well. For example, if we have a dense urban core area where most or all buildings are filled, public transportation becomes more viable.

In related news, I now have vacant properties on THREE sides of my house. And, we have completely lost our Walgreens. The pharmacy shut down a few months ago, and the whole store is closed as of today.

Maybe focusing so much on tourism as the supposed savior of our economy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You would think that a drugstore right in the hub of the tourist area would be considered a profitable location, but I guess Walgreens corporate disagrees.

Other businesses in the neighborhood that were supposedly super busy, but got shut down by order of their corporate offices some years ago, were a McDonald’s and a Starbucks.

Sometimes when I hear people walk by, I’ll overhear them say things like “oh this place would be great to set up as a VRBO or Airbnb.” One lady even said she would buy a place and tear it down and pave the front yard. So she could charge for parking. <vomit emoticons> That wouldn’t be allowed by the city, but the point I’m trying to make here is about the distortive influence of a tourist economy.

I always wonder why they’re not saying they wish they could live here. When I moved here I was so happy to be able to just live here. Every day I wake up feeling so grateful. Although, with the businesses closing down it has become a lot harder in some ways. We have lost a bicycle repair shop and several laundromats, among other businesses, and now our drugstore.

Maybe people get so all they can see are dollar signs. Entire streets get used for people’s monopoly board.

Back in 2015, I gave a talk about vacancy at the first annual Elevate, a mini “TED talk” type event in Daytona Beach.

The talk, which I titled “Filling Our Empty Spaces,” is about 6 1/2 minutes long. You can check it out here on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/U0bZRem6a3s?si=3I5ErNPFIu2WONUg

Yes there are many dimensions of this issue for sure. Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!!

Visit the thread on Revitalize, or die to see various people’s comments.

One possible solution mentioned in the thread is called Zero Empty Spaces. Aims to revitalize vacant spaces by providing affordable studio space for artists.

Wesley Roe, one of the longtime leaders* in the permaculture-design and bioregionalism movements, started a thread on his page where he asserts that permaculture has gotten an undeserved bad rap. Many people claim that permaculture is cultural appropriation, but he asserts that is not the case. Many people, including myself, have chimed in on this thread with other viewpoints. The thread is public and you can view it here.

(*Permaculture is a non-hierarchical grassroots movement, and we don’t have “leaders” in the conventional Anglo/Eurocentric sense. When I refer to a leader in the permaculture or bioregional communities, I am talking about a person who has assumed a greater level of care and responsibility for the collective, via such means as teaching, advocacy, and activism.)

Excellent and very important thread, definitely go follow the original post and comments.

Here is a bit of one of the comments; and my response:

Excerpt from comment by Farmer Rishi Kumar: “If permaculture was a ‘decolonial’ framework, why doesn’t it start with focusing on real decolonial changes like advocating for land return, reparations, actually democratic systems? Instead we get a focus on private gardens, swales, homesteads <nausea and vomit emoticons>, self-reliance.”

And my response:

Yes! <five stars> Exactly!

Actually, when I first started studying permaculture, my understanding of it was more along the lines of what you described.

And I think it got corrupted into this private “private garden / homestead” movement which is totally not what it is supposed to be about, based on what we were taught.

It’s gotten really bad, to the point where most people who join permaculture groups are just really focused on their own private food forest and not even focused on any other aspect of permaculture such as energy cycling. And when I or others bring up the ethics, talk about land back and decolonization etc., people accuse us of communism. (Not that there’s anything wrong with communism per se. It’s very telling that that’s the worst insult in their book.)

The things we were taught in class had to do with solving “modern society problems” together using nature-based practices from other places and times. And we were taught where the different practices originated from.

The Permaculture classes that I took were very much focused on collective resources, taking care of community as top priority.

And my response to a fellow anglo/euro person who reports that he is teaching permaculture in Africa:

One thing missing from these kinds of conversations, I often find, is that colonialism is the original culprit in how people lost their indigenous practices in the first place and became vulnerable to mass starvation and other disasters.

We, by which I mean white colonizers, oppressed them and made them dependent!

We deprecated traditional building methods, farming methods, etc. — and traditional structures of governance — as being “primitive,” and sold the idea of the “modern” mechanized, hierarchical, centralized, standardized way as being great. So-called “modern” industrialized Anglo/Euro-centric culture is brutish and uncivilized.

It doesn’t mean that there is no place for technology or industrial equipment etc.; but the oppressive structures need to be dismantled. It’s work that needs to be part of Permaculture. I have sometimes thought that if Bill Mollison knew these concepts he would probably have written them into the book. I didn’t know these words and concepts back when I first took my Permaculture courses, but I did get that feel from the Permaculture courses back then.

Maybe if we acknowledge this more, it would help.

You can view the original thread here, and I highly recommend it!

A topic I have posted about a lot.

A lot of people recognize the harmful aspects of investing in Wall Street — even a lot of the so-called “socially responsible funds” are problematic — but some people feel like it’s their only option since retirement is not so secure these days.

As an older person who has had it a lot easier than the younger generations, I feel I’m in a position to resist the social pressure to amass a large lump sum for “retirement.” Maybe others in a similar boat will feel emboldened to resist as well, and find other ways to face their later years. 

A lot of people dread having to work till they die. 

Regarding “retirement,” I actually prefer to work until I die. Because I really like my work, and have various categories, some of which are possible to continue well into a very old age. Such as writing and teaching.

Knowing that I’m not going to retire helps let me off the hook from having to deal with these grisly investment dilemmas which I am not willing to compromise on.

I am not willing to participate in investment funds.

I do have a paid-for house*, which I share with other people in various ways as much as I can.

My needs are simple, and I minimize my monthly expenses so I don’t need to go out and earn a bunch of money, and also, I am at peace with death so the medical industrial complex doesn’t have much threat to hold over me. (I love my life and I wouldn’t want to die anytime soon, but if it’s my time to go it’s my time to go.)

I am a boomer, and even though I dropped out of the middle class starting in the early 2000s in order to be a full-time artist and activist, with a big drop in income, I still consider myself to be in the very privileged class, and I am making my choices accordingly. I will not participate in investment funds, and I generally avoid accumulating money beyond a bit for house repairs.

My choices aren’t an option for everyone, but since they are an option for me, it is one way that I am trying to move the needle.

As part of this, I am trying to encourage my fellow Boomers to explore how they might also be able to reduce their need for money. And therefore to reduce, at least a bit, the collective pressure on people to invest in blood money just to get by.

In a couple of years I will be starting to collect Social Security, which will probably be about $1000 a month and that will be a lot for me. And if Social Security doesn’t remain solvent, then a lot of us will be in the same boat and I will be focused on helping others weather the storm as much as dealing with it myself.

And right now, one of my favorite activities is helping people get free of dehumanizing jobs and or just jobs that demand too much of their time. Almost any job is tolerable if we don’t have to spend too much time & life-energy doing it. I learned that over the years as an artist activist who has taken many gigs to pay the bills but never been forced to take full-time jobs just to get by.

It’s way harder for younger people, so I feel an obligation and a calling to help younger people especially. Sometimes the help is just offering a really cheap or free place to stay. Or supporting their side business by spending money with them and sharing their posts etc. It’s all little things but I really think it adds up.

And thank you Laura Oldanie for mentioning our book in the SC-FIRE community. This is one of the ways that we are trying to help people get free of these dreadful dilemmas.

• Full disclosure: the paid-for house is only because I inherited money when my mother passed. Before that, I was a precarious renter like so many of us. And I will always and forevermore be a housing activist, for life! I have been strongly activating for various forms of naturally affordable housing to be re-integrated into our neighborhoods, towns, and cities. A big reason why things were so much easier financially for us white boomers is that the housing ecosystem hadn’t yet gotten massively tainted by behemoth “investment funds,” as well as NIMBY ism / single-family- zoning elitism and other ills.

BTW I have found that one of the main things they give a person leverage, besides radically reducing their overhead expenses, is having such a strong calling that they will do whatever it takes to be able to pursue that calling fulltime (or close to fulltime).

Every choice has trade-offs; that will always be the case. But having a strong calling can make it feel a lot easier and less sacrifice-y to do things like share an apartment; forgo “vacations” (it’s amazing how little we need a “vacation” if we don’t have a life we need to escape from); share a car or go car-free altogether.

I love love LOVE being in my 60s — but I kind of like it that a lot of people think I look younger than 60s. So I’ve kind of been enjoying the best of both worlds until recently.

So I was wondering how I would react when somebody really didn’t question my senior citizen status. And now it is official … I HAVE experienced that, and I officially do not care! Hey, $1.85 is $1.85! Thank you Votran!

Officially, we have to be 65 to get the $1.85 bus pass deal. Otherwise it is $3.75.

BTW I was not trying to scam. I didn’t know this info until afterwards, when I looked up the fine print on the bus schedule. I was just assuming the age cutoff was over 55 or something. But, I don’t even care. I’m only 61. I don’t care that the driver apparently naturally just thought I was 65, $1.85 is $1.85!

One good thing about looking my actual age (or maybe apparently older than my actual agr?) is that I seem to have noticed a reduction in getting hit on by 30-year-olds who think I am rich or a cougar ha ha. No young man, I’m not buying you that new iPhone, you should have listened to your mom and finished your chores.

Things have gotten to a point where I was just about to have a T-shirt print it up that said, “I’m not rich, I’m just old”!!!

PS. Public service announcement: we need more cross-town bus routes, and they need to run past 6 PM. We don’t want a bunch of elderly people driving around at night, do we? I sure don’t! <laugh emoji; haunted scream emoji; cocktail emoji>

#normalizenotdriving #supportpublictransit

Update: Last weekend when I had occasion to use the bus again, I just casually put my dollar 85 into the slot and waited. Just to see what would happen, not to try to scam. The bus driver looked at me, I looked at him.

And I said, I’m just waiting for the day pass to come out of the slot.

Oh, he said, if you want one of those half-off day passes you have to show ID and prove that you are 65.

So, just FYI! 3 1/2 more years for that sweet senior day-pass deal!! I hope the previous driver didn’t get in trouble for not asking me for my ID! I didn’t mention that a previous driver had unquestioningly given me the special deal.