Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Snownapped/Kippers

A bit of a shorty here, partly by way of explanation. I've missed a couple days, and in general I don't intend to. When I first got a computer in the house (1984, Macintosh 128K, powered by solar panels) - I kept a Pepys style daily journal- for 7 years, I think. Maybe 8. So I can. Health, of various kinds, was the reason I stopped.

Health was half the reason I missed a couple days here, not me, but... my Spice. I asked her if that was ok, she kinda looked at me sideways and said "well, it's better than Number Two." The plural of spouse ought to be spice, don't you think?

Spice has been suffering from some kind of weird and intractable ear pain, for over a month. Yesterday we took the whole day to go get a serious diagnosis. Not, as it turns out, the ear; but the jaw. sigh. Maybe looking at surgery if things don't improve soon.

Reason #2 has to do with sustainable living- and the weather. If you're actually living green, it does indeed make more of a difference what the weather is doing- you have to deal with it more inimately than if you're totally insulated by expensive technology. So- we got winter, and lots of messy snow, right now, and it kind of slows things down.

It IS, I assure you, a warm cozy feeling to be inside a house you built yourself- with your family- and the wind roaring- and the fire, from your own wood, keeping all warm. Lovely.

So. True confessions time- man, does it ever make you want to take a nice comfy nap.....

Heck we all deserve one, right? And the snow makes it nearly impossible to actually be out and about- gosh, I'm stuck here...

Ok, on to the kippers. The BBC has a fun study posted today on why men don't leave home so much these days.

Kippers

Paragraph two: "and a fully-stocked fridge."

Kipper is a nifty new acronym; probably British in origin but I think destined for wide adaptation; "Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings."

Nice play on "nipper", and "kip"- and tasty but definitely smelly fish.

Once again, the refrigerator surfaces as very near the heart of a problematic development. And still, the most common response to my blindingly brilliant suggestion is some version of "I couldn't possibly", "unrealistic!", "my family would never let me!"

C'mon, guys. Think a little harder.

A) 100 years ago, they didn't exist. Pretty obviously, your ancestors did manage to reproduce without one.
2) Right now today- most of the people on the planet STILL do not have one, in 2007. Are they reproducing?
iii) I live in the USA - and I've done it for 30 years; so again, it can be done. And I just reproduced recently.

Please don't make me write the book! And now you have additional incentive, if you've got a little kipper hanging about - unplug that fully stocked fridge, and see if it makes a difference. :-)

Ok, nap time. Dinner- will involve meat- refrigerated quite nicely and with zero environmental cost, on the porch.

2 comments:

Cheri said...

I love the idea of unplugging the fridge!

My husband's aunt was allergic to something in refrigerators so they had an old-fashioned ice box. They lived just a few blocks from the place that sold blocks of ice. During the summer, they would buy a block of ice every few days. The rest of the year they used the porch.

Thanks for the challenge - I wish I would have thought of it sooner, but like my dad says -'too soon old, too late smart'.

Anonymous said...

Trust me, Kippers can still rob you without being within arm-reach of the refrigerator! "I just got laid off but I couldn't possibly leave my beautiful spacious apartment. But that's OK, I'll be fine...sniff..."